From magnum. This had been opened a while by the time I got to it, but it was splendid and very true to the vintage. Great acidity and just the right amount of secondary character. You could see the wine starting to show more of the nutty elements, but it was still stupendously fresh (or was that just the generous acidity?). Properly dosed, this is full on the palate, even though the acidity is high. Very good stuff.

Served with an extra chill, which gives this a little more burst of freshness than not. Not too high in alcohol, but certainly a little lower in acidity than I like for my white wines. On the other hand, the floral aromas are actually quite pleasing here, and there's a honeyed note on the palate that's quite nice. Readily drinkable, but not too complex.

Very ripe, old-school chardonnay that doesn't have a single hint of reduction. Opulent and rich on the palate, with lots of apple (not browned!) flavours, as well as a little butterscotch/caramel thing that might be from oak. Intense and long, but with enough of an acidic backbone to keep the wine focussed. Why isn't more white Burgundy like this?

Early 1980s release. Huge pop when the cork was pulled, this bottle was in unbelievably good shape. This is very nutty and showing plenty of tertiary, sherry-like flavours, but it is still fresh and bright, and extremely drinkable. That massive amount of dosage here, where you can still pick out a clear bit of sweetness, must have helped this wine on its journey. A huge surprise, and it makes me wonder if we really do make champagnes like this any more (I get the feeling that the answer is no).

This wine still has it going on. It's pretty much everything I remember it being from tasting it during the first covid summer. Crazy aromatics that are on the red fruit side of the spectrum. Very clean (lacking some of the wilder Jamet aromatics -- not necessarily a bad thing) and precise; beautiful acidity and midweight in the context of the wines tonight. Very much better than the somewhat suspect bottle of 2015, and probably among my favourites tonight, though it gets dinged for the simple fact that it's just too young.

This was really different from a bottle that I tasted last year. This bottle on the initial taste was mute on the nose, with some relatively unpleasant animale notes that seemed really out of place for a wine this young. Very much on the black fruit side of the scale (but actually lacking the sweetness of the fruit), with a brooding, tannic structure that seems to overwhelm everything else on the palate. This bottle didn't seem to be too clean on the palate either. Fruit did emerge a few hours in, but the tannic structure here is just too massive. I was quite bullish on 2015 early on; this bottle's showing gives me a little pause, but it is also inconsistent with that much better showing last year. In any case, what do I know?

This doesn't seem like it'll ever become a great bottle of Jamet, but I would happily drink this anyway. It shows a lighter disposition than average. The nose shows lots of black peppercorn, and fruit on the red side. The palate isn't too concentrated or as complex, but there is a lightness here that makes this readily approachable now.

This may well have been one of the surprises of the evening. I've never thought too highly of the vintage (well to be honest, this is the vintage around which I really started getting into Northern Rhône), but this bottle really stood out in terms of how well it was showing. The nose is just pure classic syrah -- brine, black pepper, olives, smoke, meat, and after all that some red fruit (that's starting to dry). The palate's texture is what gets me though. It's so silky and luxurious, and very similar to the stunning 2000 that we had later in the evening.

From half-bottle. I wasn't quite as bullish on this as I remember being a few years ago when tasting this for the first time. The nose was massive, with a very compelling mix of red and black fruit, but it was also suffering from a slight reductive note as well. This wine feels a little tense and ornery right now, but it certainly has the concentration and complexity for the very long haul.

From half-bottle. A second bottle of this to make up a full 750 ml. I got to this bottle on the revisits, so this one had gotten some more air. But I didn't find that it was particularly different than the first half-bottle; it was just that I was tasting this in a different context.

Next to the 2010, I have to admit that I found the older vintage a little more compelling to drink right now. This isn't a difficult wine; it gives up its charms easily. Opulently sweet black fruit with a spicy, black-fruited nose. One of the sweetest, and most readily drinkable wines today. It's not too complex, but it just drinks so damn well right now. Certainly I think there's enough fruit and other material on the palate for further aging, but this just drinks so deliciously right now it's hard to justify not opening one.

The contrast from the preceding vintages couldn't be more stark. A lean, slightly green nose that has a pronounced saline note, with fruit that is clearly tart. The palate's most prominent feature is the high acidity; the tart fruit seems to already be somewhat subdued. Not too funky, but overall a little too lean and light.

A very befuddling bottle, even though it wasn't bad or off. There's a distinct greenness in the form of pyrazines on the nose and palate here. The intense herbal character is pretty surprising here. It's a bit pedestrian on the palate, but there is a little more weight and fruit than the wispy 2008. It's really the green notes here that confuse me. I'd love to try another bottle of this to see if my experience would be consistent, but it's not so compelling that I want to seek that second bottle out myself.

This bottle suffered quite a bit being next to the Côte Brune. The nose had a slight herbal element, but also some olive brine. The fruit was clearly red and tart, and similar to the 2008, but I think this had a little more weight. The palate on this bottle was a little thin and seemed to show too much acid relative to everything else. Nevertheless, this is a perfumed, elegant bottle that is very true to the vintage.

A huge contrast next to the regular 2004 Côte-Rôtie. This is a much bigger, darker-complexioned wine, with far more weight and depth (and especially so with a few hours of air). The thing here that is most interesting is the textural difference -- this truly feels like being ensconced in velvet. The lesson for me here is to decant my other bottle of this and to give it generous air. The table agreed that the last few pours of this were the most compelling.

Probably the unanimous wine of the evening. Just straight-up archetypal. Everything that you expect in a proper syrah, in good amounts and in proper balance. In a phenomenally compelling spot right now, it feels pointless to write a note on this. Again, this is a wine whose texture makes it so much more compelling -- it's fully resolved and the tannins, while present, are just so elegant and silky here. A real masterpiece.

I originally thought this was corked, but upon further reflection, I don't think it was (it was just funky). That said, this was pretty chunky and inelegant, and there just wasn't that much of interest here, sadly.

Corked.