Fantastic stuff. This is in a great place right now - there are layers of mature baked apple, peach, and other orchard fruit flavours with burnished tinges, and smoky and mineral accents around the fruit that keep getting more complex and layered with air, with all the flavours coming together really seamlessly on the palate. Amazing depth and complexity here with powerful acids beneath the bright fruit, and a remarkably long finish.

This is a bit of a disappointment by Alzinger's standards - an excellent wine, though not quite showing the level of finesse and depth that I usually expect from Alzinger. Lots of bright, focused citrus, pear and riper peach fruit tinged with mineral and floral notes, though the palate seems rather ripe and fleshy without the cut and focus of Alzinger's other Smaragds. Time and air bring out more mineral and herbal notes, but it perhaps suffered a bit in contrast to the Prager and Jamek poured alongside.

Wow, the acidity here is something else. Piercingly bright citrus and white fruited flavours layered with an array of stony and saline mineral notes, and more flamboyant floral elements, but what really makes this a wow wine is the sheer cut and focus on the palate. Despite the incredible acidity it never feels austere or shrill, and the balance and length are incredible. Stunning wine.

Nowhere near as good as the last couple of times I had it. It's well balanced with bright red fruit and some savoury earthy flavours, but there's nothing here that speaks of Syrah or Côte-Rôtie, and while it's pleasant enough to drink, it's a totally anonymous wine with no distinctive character at all. A huge disappointment.

Oxidative and nutty, tasting maderized. Such a shame. Can't win em all though.

I have had a ton of bottle variation with the '85 Raffault, but this was definitely one of the best bottles I've come across. No brett in this one, it's all fresh dark berried fruit, green forestal, herbal and faintly leafy notes, and more developed earthy - almost gravelly - notes all coming together very seamlessly on the nose and palate. The tannin seems fully integrated, and most of the structure remaining comes from the acidity, which keeps it remarkably fresh and lively on the palate. Remarkably good match with the pizza.

Absolutely stunning wine that leaves me wondering why more CDP can't taste like this. This is all about freshness and lightness. Really bright, high toned red fruited flavours tinged with floral notes, more faint stemmy and herbal elements, and a stony/earthy element on the back end. The label indicates 14.5% alcohol but this doesn't show it at all - it's remarkably graceful on the palate with very fine grained tannins, and really bright acidity that gives it lift. Remarkable depth and length, and the first bottle at the table to be emptied.