Quite dark in colour with sweetness which I felt came from ripe fruit rather than dosage, so I agreed that this might have been a majority Meunier champagne. Crisp red fruit, slightly woolly and not very precise so I went with 2015 as a warm but not a particularly strong vintage. Liked the style though as everything was balanced otherwise so thought it was a producer that I liked - no surprises when it was Bereche on reveal.

This was rather tight at first but opened up beautifully to show the typical Cristal citrus fruit. I usually find Cristal too austere for my liking but this was magnificent, think my palate leans towards Cristal in warmer vintages. Label looked like it had an older font so probably an original disgorgement?

Beautiful floral and nose of well-integrated oak that reminded me of the '02 Mongeard-Mugneret GE, so it made sense that this was a producer of similar ilk. Unfortunately the palate was a little thin and unbalanced, didn't have much depth either. Reading previous notes maybe this was better a few years ago. Guessed 98 Vosne.

Didn't peg this as a Laurent! Nose was slightly muted but this was a stunning wine on the palate. Impeccable balance, the bright red cherry fruit and acidity integrated seamlessly. The Confuron appeared older alongside but I was confident this was the older wine based on the depth that only age could bring, thought it was an 89/90 Vosne. My favourite Laurent so far.

Probably the most divisive wine of the dinner, there wasn't a consensus on the nose and palate. I belonged to the camp who didn't like the nose as it was a little old and musty with mushroom notes (some did love it though), but I absolutely loved the palate on this. Silky, dark red fruit that was so young and pure, would have thought this came from the 1980s. Had the aristocratic, understated elegance that was very similar to the 1996 I tried the other day. My WOTN.

My contribution. I opened this three hours before dinner expecting that it needed time, but it was singing with all the markers of a top northern Rhone - deep dark red fruit, subtle spice and a sauvage feel to the wine. At dinner a couple of people found this to have excessive VA but I didn't get that, though I agreed that the nose was flat. Another taster said it might have been corked (which I usually am sensitive to) but the palate was still remarkably vibrant with sweet red fruit that almost verged on alcoholic, so most people guessed Italian. When tasted at home unfortunately it was definitely corked, albeit barely perceptibly so. Shame because if it had continued showing as it did when I first opened the bottle this would have been my best ever northern Rhone.