Essence of Veuve - medium body, layers of flavour, brilliant bottle development. A great balance between freshness and yeasty/toasty complexity. This particular bottle might have slightly erred towards being a too developed, but it was clearly outstanding.

Bone dry Alsatian riesling at its apex of development. Supple textures, aged and generous body, clean acids, beatify balance, mineral nuance, brilliant complexity. This will continue to age and develop, although I wonder if it will improve.

Party, dense, chocolate, cheery, VA, thick tannins. better with cheese than the Lamb. Clearly an outstanding wine, but its overt personality tends towards a lack of traditional balance. Next to the (still opulent and modern) Craggy Range Le Sol 2002, this came off as slightly less composed.

Drunk next to the Harlan Maiden 2001 , this was by general consensus (and also my opinion) the finer of the two wines. Very much styled in a Cult style, with highish alcohol and some VA, this was far more classically rendered than the Harlan. the balace is exquisite, with a marvellous tannic background that keeps the opulence of the fruit in check. By comparison, the Harlan's fruit (admittedly far more opulent and higher in alcohol) was not easily balanced by its even higher levels of tannic structure. The CR was brilliant withe the Lamb, while the Maiden *(with its portyness) was prefer wit the cheese.