A serious champagne. The nose showed quite a bit of age on it, with bits white button mushrooms, some funky earth and mineral, and then a blush of slightly browning red apples and more mature honey and brioche aromas. The funk carried on slightly into the palate, where it met with more notes of slightly browning apples and honeyed pears, all couched in a big, powerful, muscular mouthful. Yet for all its power, this was also decently balanced, with a good bit of sweet lemon acidity and a nice fine mousse leading into a fairly mineral finish and a slightly fizzy mousse, again touched with notes of earth, honey and brioche. Altogether, a nice and interesting Champagne, drinking in a fairly fairly good friendly manner now.

There was a real ripeness to the nose on this one - more so than I remembered it from a few years back - with notes of ripe red apples and melons, even a bit of honey wrapped around more earthy, flinty, minerally aromas. All this coming together in quite a pleasing fashion indeed. The palate was where I thought the wine shone. Powerful, ripe, full, with sunny notes of cream and red apples, then honeyed pears almost shading into tropical shades; yet it was also sleek, polished and defined, with gobs of really lovely 2014 acidity and a lovely streak of mineral pulling away into a stony, flinty finish, all this lending the wine a lovely sense of cut and drive. Mouthwatering stuff. Lovely now, especially with food, but this should continue to integrate further over the next few years.

Really reductive on first pour, full of matchsticks and flint, and quite a little whiff of sulphur. There was just a bit of ripe white fruit aromas creeping out amidst all that flint and mineral and reductive. The palate was very impressive, with a lovely depth and clarity resounding in its white fruited character, this again lined with a wonderfully energetic seam of acidity, together with a serious spine of flinty, almost ferrous minerality. There was a lovely sense of depth and breadth to this, but will really stood out for me was the energy and verve it had, almost dancing across the mouth on a glide of sweet lemon acidity and a touch of burnt orange peel stretching into a a long mineral finish. Lots of richness on this, but the wine bore it quite effortlessly, with plenty of dry extract to carry it too. Just perhaps too young now, still coming across a little tighter than the other 2014 whiten the day, but it will be interesting to see where this goes in 4-5 years.

Decent enough - but not my cup of tea. This smelt like a Bordeaux on speed, with plums and mulberries, some funky earth and meat aromas, and then a touch of ferrous blood, all these soaked with a rather spriggy eucalyotus scents. The palate was marked with prickly acidity and a chew of slightly bittersweet tannins working its way through more plum and white mulberry notes, these again trailing away into eucalyptus inflected midpalate, and then an earthier, meatier every so slightly dry and woody finish. There is some complexity and interest on this, but not really my type of style. The slightly dry character did not quite help either.

I had a really good bottle of this just over a decade ago. This one was disappointing in that context - it seems to have gone downhill rather sharply in the intervening years. It was just really old tasting. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was a light strawberry juice colour, between pink and brown, cloudy to boot. And it smelt old too - lots of funky earth and herb notes, sous bois and gym socks, all riding over a whiff of iron and blood, maybe a hint of cherries and red berries. Hard to get past the aged funk on it. The palate still had yet another rather intimidating layer of funk, but I thought it was a little more approachable than the nose, with little bits of spice and herb swirling around notes of dried strawberries and cherries, these still held up by a little touch acidity as the wine faded into a gentle finish kissed by a little goal of dried red fruit. A far cry from the beautiful bottle of yesteryears. Drink up!

Pretty decent, but still too fat and sweet to enjoy completely. This needs time yet. The nose was intensely honeyed, with notes of dried apricots and pineapples touched with sweet white flowers and just little hints of mineral and kerosene. The palate was not quite as sweet, but still had a really honeyed tone to it, with more of those dried apricots and pineapples, this time though enlivened by just a little bit of Mosel acidity, and a then a touch of smoky spice and a linger of florals trailing away into a quietly long finish. Powerful, deep and rather moreish, but coming across a bit fat and lacking some cut and lift - this was clearly a child of its vintage. While yummy though, this was far from the most elegant of effortless Mosel Auslese.