Nose: Floral approach with ripe melon, meyer lemon and an almond paste note. Palate: Slightly viscous feel, but never heavy. Mango, Lemon oil, and a bit of an oxadative note, but not too intense. Finish: Pleasant citrus and floral notes with hints of oxidation.

Really nice wine that is not too wooly or oxadative for chenin blanc.

Nose: Elegant, perfumed and giving a nose of red cherry, plum juice, florals, earth and cinnamon. Palate: Resolved, silky and light with a lifted elegance that Jancis might describe as "limpid". Nice notes of red berries, cherry, earth and redhots/allspice. Finish: Deeply perfumed in the finish and lingering with sensual red cherry and dark floral notes.

Very similar to the prior bottle.

Nose: Slate, Blackberry, dried blueberry, wet earth, pine and garden herbs. Palate: Great attack on this bottle of sweet black fruit then nice earth, mineral and chervil/bell pepper. Finish: A bit simple with dark fruit, licorice and earthy pepper/potato notes.

The Montrose was stylisticly in the middle tonight, but offered a really classic expression of St. Estephe.

Nose: Blackberry and Black Cherry with the patina of age, and notes of licorice, smoke, gingerbread, shaved chocolate and cedar adding complexity to a great nose. Palate: Distinctively layered endless levels of dark fruit, spice, cedar, tobacco and sweet earth. What an aristocrat here. Finish: Nicely tailored finish that is focused delivering black fruit, dried berries, gingerbread spice and cedary oak. Resonates in the mouth.

Only wine still showing a tiny touch of tannin tonight, but it did not detract from the overall impression. Even more so than the 1970, this expresses the character of Ducru perfectly for me. WOTN

Easily the star of the night