en magnum
A fairly muted nose. Good palate with a nice roundness. Really rather too young, I think. Very nice, but it doesn't thrill me.

A very young colour. The nose, however, belies the wine's age and shows some reduction and some sulphur. On the palate, it's a little schizophrenic: it's fresh yet at the same time has mainly secondary, minerally flavours.

This is a much deeper colour; much more the right sort of colour. It's showing the same sort of age on the nose, which is quite petrolly and with some botrytis. It's still fairly sweet on the palate, but there's lots of pure elegance here too. Nicely integrated. Delicious with roast guinea fowl.

A deep tropical fruit nose with a bit of a cinammon backbone. Very balanced, and - notably so for a gewurztraminer - really quite classy feeling. It's very balanced in the mouth. Perfumed, but not excessively so. Very impressive.
But it's a wine that very clearly works best drunk on its own - it would make a decent aperitif.
It didn't work with any of the food that I tried it with, but was particularly disastrous with a foie gras parfait, which just killed it completely dead. I can't remember a wine which was so completely killed by a dish which you would expect to work well with it.

A big, very ripe nose. The trademark (for me) Zind Humbrecht power above all else. It's a completely full on Gewurz, and is really very good, but is a bit hard work on its own, and marred on the finish a touch of alcoholic burn.
This really, really needs food to make it drinkable with pleasure: it was by far the best match with a foie gras parfait and - later in the meal - with some Lincolnshire Poacher cheese.

This has a very interesting nose: bright and perfumed, with blackberry, and then - rather oddly - some melon and apple. It feels very young on the palate, and doesn't live up to the nose at all. It's really very austere.
After just 10 or 15 minutes, the nose has changed compeletely. There are now violets with metallic notes. Then its starts to release some orange peel, which starts to show itself in some VA sweetness on the palate too.

A subtle nose: gentle fruit with some cedar. Very even palate. There are very firm tannins still, but it's drinking well now. A bit dull though.

A gorgeous, very feminine nose. This is just supremely elegant. Class in a glass. Just a lovely texture and balance in the mouth. Later in the evening, the nose is quite magnificent, though it's starting to feel less together on the palate. Come midnight, it was feeling past it.

This looks very young. The nose is fairly wild with gently perfumed black fruit and hints of tar. There's very young fruit on the palate. It feels very integrated and has a lovely structure and great balance. With time, it's standing up better than the Margaux and manages to develop some mintiness on the nose.

Corked

The nose has meaty, fairly muscular black fruits. On the palate, it feels very young on the palate with fresh fruit and firm tannins.

A big, solid, muscular nose. It's a diamond geezer of a wine. Powerful and a bit obvious, but always there for you. It has enormous length with some bacon fat after.

This is rather good on the nose: there's game and some musk. Some dry fur. A delicious, evolved palate, but still with very firm tannins. It doesn't go very far on the finish. Fabulous with the guinea fowl, and the wine of the flight for me.

This has intense black fruit on the nose with some garrique in the background. There's also a definite hint of emulsion paint. Big and mouthfilling; and also a touch wild. Massive tannins.
It's much improved with food, but is still rather outclassed by the rest of the flight.

On the nose, there's honey, orange and caramelisation, but none of it is overdone. Quite delicate on the palate, it develops orangey flavours towards the finish. Very slightly separate on the finish. There's also a slightly hot edge to it.

A very muted nose, with less honey, but more marmelade, or even apricot jam. This is more together than the Suduiraut, but overall, it just seems a little obvious.

A noticeably lighter colour than the other two. It has a lovely nose, and then on the palate there is some orange flowers and a very subtle honey note. This is very classy on the palate, and stands head and shoulders above the 89 Suduiraut and 89 Rieussec.

A darker colour than you might expect. The nose has apricots, apricots, some more apricots, finished off with a glaze of apricot jam. Really lovely on the palate. Really luscious. There's powerful acidity there, but it's not too separate.

This is quite perfumed on the nose with some honey, quince and a touch of citrus. Quite fresh on the attack, yet there's decent concentration on the palate. Massive acidity, balances the sweetness. But overall, it's really rather underwhelming.

Quite darkly coloured, which doesn't augur terribly well. It has a very pure, though rather simple riesling nose. Distinctly unimpressive on the palate. There's some sweetness and lots of acidity. But there's nothing really there to back up the acidity. There doesn't seem to be any particular fault, either in winemaking or subsequent storage. It's just a bit crap.