Drank as an aperitif in large white wine glasses.....even more expressive than drinking it from large flutes the week before (see my earlier notes). This is so more-ish...fresh, elegant but already showing the underlying masculinity of the Sir Winston Churchill marque. This will likely last forever but it is so hard not to open a bottle already.

Half-deep yellow gold. Very slightly oxidative nose, fresh almonds, lanolin, warm unobtrusive oak. Palate is rich, beeswax polish, buttery, very rounded. Lots of beeswax but without sweetness. Low to moderate acidity. Better with food (Iberico ham) but more a curiosity than something to write home about. Should have been drank at least 5 years ago. I declined a top-up.

Bright and fresh-looking darker yellow gold. Nose is warm lemon, lanolin, muted. Palate is fresh acidic bite on initial attack, very slightly honeyed but dry. Very heady but quite elegant. Medium weight. Lacks character....when last drank a year ago I wondered whether it was in a dull phase but now I have concluded it is just dull and ridiculously expensive.

Bright silvery gold colour. Nose is shy but interesting spice and floral pollen notes if you chase it. Palate shows a lot of young promise...really fresh and bright acidity, white stone fruits melded with spicy elegant and restrained oak. Really well-made in a linear manner. Revisit in 3-5 years.

Two bottles opened for a couple of hours but not decanted. Semi-transparent deep ruby colour . Nose is meaty, perfumed, musk on a summers night. Palate is beautiful, fresh acidic attack, really lovely and elegant tannic structure. Wow... the palate is really singing. so more-ish. Absolutely La Conseillante. Medium but really agreeable resonance and reverberance. It has unfurled somewhat since I last drank it a year ago. Very classy indeed. 91+

Not decanted...no need. Opaque deep bright jewelled black/ruby colour just turning transparent at the rim edge. Nose is gosh... immediately captivating garrique, deep black plum, really fresh, alive and open, hints of liquorice root, star anise, blackberries in the background. Palate is bright acidity, crisp blackberry fruit, bright tannins with super structure, high acidity but in a freshness enhancing way. Really elegant and fully mature but this bottle had years of life ahead of it. Medium weight and resonant reverberence inside the head on the finish but so long and elegant. My last and absolutely my best bottle from a case of 12. Adieu. 94+

Our host doesn't like to decant his wines, which was a pity in this case. Semi-opaque black/ purple colour. Nose is nicely perfumed, smoky, spice-infused red currant fruits. Palate is fresh but matured soft tannins, good berry-driven acidity, rounded and integrated but still with an attractive tannic angular structure. Elegant. Still young. Really enjoyable. Slightly immature in terms of length and resonance on the finish. Can improve significantly with decanting or 5 years' more age. Not so compelling as the Ch La Conseillante 1998 we drank in tandem.

From a magnum not decanted but with tons of sediment encrusted on the shoulders of the bottle. Very surprisingly light watery rose-gold in colour. Nose is emulsion paint but with higher toned notes of nail varnish remover. Vanilla pods come out with more time in the glass. Palate is powerful, linear, lots of autolytic elements verging towards towards paint stripper and gasoline. Then an astringent element of strawberry candy. With extended time a high alcohol but light cognac wrapped in a Christmas pudding element emerges which is very alluring. Deceptively complex and massively but subtly mountingly reverberant inside the head. Lightness remains the overwhelming impression. Fully mature. WOW!