Lovely bright red fruit. Not decanted but a floral brightness from the off. Lovely fragrance. Smooth and fresh. Very drinkable if perhaps lacking a little substance. Proper old school charm. Lovely trad claret. Top ***

A little darker and slightly more dense. Drier on the attack with more grip through the mid palate. A touch of rusticity. Substance though. ***

Quite dense on the nose, restrained and dense on the attack too. Dark red fruit with an initial linear feel. Not expansive, but correct. Opens with air and rounds out. This has put on weight and shows more stuffing than the ‘luncheon claret’ of a decade ago. ***1/2

Where the Pote sac is linear, this starts off very broad and quite short before lengthening and filling in all directions. Quite a lot here. A savoury element on the finish. Plenty of interest and as usual punches above its weight. ****

Gorgeous nose.all tobacco and cedar and warm gravel. Attack mirrors the palate. This is a big step up in complexity if not density. Palate doesn’t quite live up to the nose, but it’s very good. ****

Dark and savoury nose. Blackcurrant in a velvet frame. Blackcurrant leaf too. Cool, dense, blackcurrant. Mellow and smooth. Fully resolved but palate still a little subdued. Extra level of density cf previous flight. ****

Dark to mid red fruit and a touch of green pepper. Again, similar on the palate. Red fruited with a pinch of green pepper. Very together. A richness and an extra layer of density cf previous flight. The right balance between propriety and fun. ****1/2

A few years on and a step up from previous bottles. Blackcurrant with a touch of something lactic though this isn’t the case on the palate. Nicely blackcurrant through a slightly diffuse filter. Some density here. Very classic and solid Pauillac. ****

Again, blackcurrant and a touch of cream. A little drier on the palate. Nicely Pauillac. Very resolved and together. Poised. The classical pick of the night. ****1/2

Blackcurrant with a redder fruited element. Very open and giving. Comely even. Pomegranates! Maybe a bit soft in a a Rubenesque way, but really just lovely and lush. My wine of the night for fun and current drink ability, but possibly not in terms of absolute classic quality. It’s a lot of fun. ****

Half. Coconut, some botrytis. Mid sweetness. A sense of the lip-smacking. Very decent and some. ****