There's a date on the label: 1/9/2016, presumably the disgorgement date, and since the label is French, I'm thinking that this is the first of September. But I digress. This is a very full-bodied champagne, with a lot of mushroom and red fruit on the nose and palate. There's a clear dose of bruised apple as well, which clearly shows the pinot-heaviness on this. Very good acidity and lots of structure here.

This is probably the best bottle of the three that I bought. The nose on this is huge and opulent, as good grand cru Burgundy ought to be. Lots of fruit here and a real surprising freshness that belies the age on this wine. With some air, this actually got a bit more popcorny and buttery. There's a little bit of sweetness from the fruit, and the acidity is a bit on the low side, but it's still present. Tons of oak -- delicious!

#09-14, 13% abv. I'm not really sure what to think of this. Lots of fresh acidity on this wine, with none of that Alsatian flabbiness. This is clean and crisp, with lots of white fruit and a light touch of florals. If anything, the palate is a little bit thin on the backend, but all in all this is a very interesting (and dare I say one of the best) pinot blancs I've ever had (that's not actually saying a lot).

You know that trope where everyone writes about how such and such a wine leaps or explodes out of a glass? Yeah, this one does that, and it's not because I was jostled and it spilled out. The nose on this is absolutely incredible: there's a complete balance of bright red fruit, meat, olive brine, and other Northern Rhone goodness. The palate is more of the same, but what is impressive here is how this manages to be so light yet concentrated at the same time. Brilliant stuff.

Completely brilliant California syrah -- probably one of the best American renditions of the grape ever. The nose on this is dense, black, animale, and earthy, and definitely reminiscent of a great old-school Cornas. The palate shows fruit the way the riper climes of California ought, but it's restrained by acidity and feral tannins. Amazing stuff; the work of genius.

This is a peppercorn bomb of both white and black. The nose also shows a bit of green olive salinity as well. On the palate, the wine does come off a little bit thin, with an odd touch of strawberry juice intertwined with the other characters which makes it a little bit disjoint. My biggest question here is how this is going to age: while this is a fine wine now, it doesn't seem to have enough stuffing on the palate from ripeness to hold for the long haul. Which is perhaps one of my objections with the "new wave" California producers -- to my palate, it seems that they pick earlier to make wine in a lighter, low-alcohol style, which is to me commendable, but often these wines would benefit from a touch more fruit and ripeness.

#13-98, 8% abv. This was one of the best bottles of this that I've opened yet. Tons of fruit with pineapple and grapefruit flavours and a slight touch of green herbs. It's got plenty of acidity, but also balanced by the sugar, which isn't over the top at all. Mineral and slatey as well -- this is the full package on show today.

#15-04, 8.5% abv. From half-bottle. If served blind, there's absolutely no way anyone would guess that this was a 2003 vintage wine. While it's definitely very fruit forward, there's tons of fresh acidity here to balance the high amount of sugar here. No roasted character to speak of either. The fruit here is clean and the flavours very concentrated. Put this bottle down as another example of the greatness of the 2003 German vintage.