Deep ruby colour with a browner caste. The nose has a beefy depth and starts heavily, slowly giving up higher, more herby notes and guarded black cherry. The palate is loaded with soft tannin, concentration that builds into the finish and, overall, seems quite balanced. The acidity seems on a lowish level but that’s partly because of the strength of the fruity extract, but lingers well in the finish. What’s missing just now is a measure of elegance – perhaps it will come with age – I won’t open another in the next 5 years.

Medium plus ruby colour. Starting with plenty of woodspice, you need plenty of aeration to get more fruit, still a little spice and plummy almost porty fruit. There are tannins, but well controlled and quite velvetty. The acidity nicely prolongs the finish of the black shaded fruit. This wine is currently about concentrated, one-dimensional fruit. Again I have a couple of bottles for the future which will hopefully show a little more interest and complexity once I get round to them.