February 1, 2023 - Last of 12, opened 90 minutes, perfect cork and level, as last August, attractive, no sense of fade, if anything greater nuance developing, and more pleasurable than technical mark may suggest, plateau but no rush. VGI (17).
August 10, 2022 - 11th of 12, opened 15 minutes, perfect cork and level, possibly most attractive bottle so far having rounded out nicely, good drive to black plum fruit suffused with minerality, just a bit simple for better than VGI (17) but this bottle higher on pleasure.
August 28, 2021 - Slowly starting to fade away, yet there is more than enough, ripe, soft-textured, sweet, earthy plums, truffle, thyme and wet earth on the nose and elegantly textured palate to make this fun to taste for a few more years. However, it is time to drink up before more of the fruit continues to fade.
May 5, 2021 - 10th of 12, opened an hour, perfect cork and level, quite rich, not particularly nuanced, oddly muted fruit flavours and a tad short, drinkable but not entirely clean (I think!), no upside and no reason to hold. G (15).
January 25, 2021 - 9th of 12....corked!
May 24, 2020 - 8th of 12, decanted an hour, perfect cork and level, more convincing performance than last year's bottle and somehow weightier, just about a point, lovely plummy fruit with nice if essentially simple dimension, attractive earthiness, tad short, but higher on pleasure than mark suggests. VGI (17).
August 17, 2019 - 7th of 12, decanted an hour, perfect cork and level, essentially simple if with attractive plum fruit with hints of chocolate and earth, good balancing acidity giving it an attractive freshness if a bit short, components to show more nuance but probably won't, no rush but probably at peak. VG+ (16.5)….rounder and fuller 2000 on same night perhaps less immediately attractive but more potential.
March 11, 2018 - 6th of 12, decanted an hour, corked, richer and with more drive underneath.
December 24, 2017 - From a magnum. Drink out.
August 10, 2017 - 5th of 12, decanted an hour, perfect cork and level, much improved, still youthful and rather dense, but with lovely core of ripe fruit, almost velvety, good length and persistence, just a bit simple for better than current mark (often a problem in merlot based wines for those like me looking for complexity and nuance), scope to develop further. Just F (17.5).