Blind. Light to mid gold. A touch of lanolin. Quite lush on the nose despite the advanced-seeming colour. Mid weight, some richness. Rounded rather than any particular line. Mellow. 01 DDC? A sense of beeswax. Some freshness with air as it warms. Lovely balance and a dead ringer for aged Bordeaux. Initially ***1/2 but as it warms and opens there’s enough for ****

Mid to full ruby. Ripe blackcurrant nose. A cool edge. Nicely rich on the attack, more linear through the mid palate with good acidity on the finish. Slight dip in the middle, but long. Fills out with air. Lovely. ****1/2

A little closer to garnet. Again, a nicely herbaceous blackcurrant nose. Surprisingly grippy, plenty of fine tannin. Nicely balanced but could do with food. Mulberry and a touch of raspberry as it opens up. Quite impressive. ****

Mid ruby to deep garnet. Richer and denser on the nose, recognisably Palmer. A little fresher and dare I say it, leaner on the attack. Some coolness to the fruit. Picks up depth and a touch of gravitas with air, but a minor key cf the great vintages. ****

Single blind. Dense ruby. Very smooth and balanced. Classic mature Graves. Harmonious and long without scaring the horses. Quietly lovely. Very lovely. ?2000 ****1/2

Single blind. Slightly herbal nose. Question re TCA — not obvious given it was double decanted four hours previously, but there is an edge that’s aunt there when opened. A bit herbal and clipped. ?2001 ***1/2 at best, and atypical, so probably low level TCA.

A thoroughbred, but it’s done a few furlongs nonetheless. Dense, opaque and quite cloudy ruby. Sediment counters the Cordier ‘style’ somewhat. Core of blackcurrant fruit, but ultimately it’s a bit murky. ***–**** but hard to judge from this bottle.

Classic blackcurrant and cedar nose. Dense, cool blackcurrant fruit. Nicely dense. Quite a lot here. Relatively monolithic without the negative connotations. ****

Cool, Marley blackcurrant fruit. Mineral edge. A coolness here. A sense of restraint / reserve. Lots of elegance with latent stamina. Chic, and it knows it. ****

Rich nose. A trademark touch of mocha. Mid palate richness. Still some structure here — fine tannin and some acidity on the finish. Just a touch of volatility as J notes. ***(*)

Single blind. Mid to dense ruby. Smoky blackcurrant nose. More plush and dense on the palate. Lots here. Still some primary structure. ?2000. ****1/2

Similar mid to dense ruby. The smoke and spice dialled back a little. A touch lactic on the nose. A little less structure, more glycerin and acidity than fine tannin. A little more green freshness. ?2002 ****

Burnished brass. Barley sugar and saffron. Sweet. Some density here. Real density, in fact. Manages to finish freshly. Gosh, seriously sweet. Serious wine.****1/2