Medium, medium-plus colour. Some high, tones, even hints of mint over a red and blueberry fruit with vanilla/coconut accents. Sweet, growing in the mid-palate with creamy, ripe fruit and very good underlying acidity. This is large-scaled and very long finishing, but it’s mainly in the vanilla-coconut register, which I find a shame today. Very easy to drink but in a, perhaps, non-Burgundian way. I’m sure that time will cure all my concerns.

Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose is very fine; there’s latent oak that brings a little espresso macchiato into the equation but essentially it’s about a fresh, dark red fruit and occasional faint whiffs of bacon. Smooth, fresh and intense, it’s a classic middle-years wine – forward acidity and a narrow, lean complexion, but long too. This will be excellent – eventually! I won’t open another for 5 years, but I expect I’ll need to wait another five for real dividends. Super.

Medium-plus color. Intense violets over red cherry and a faint white pepper. Very, very silky – gorgeous depth of plush red fruit. Very, very long with just a hint of barrel flavour. It’s a beauty.

A softer and redder nose. A narrow entry but it bursts across the palate with accessible ripe fruit – structure and complexity follow in the next wave. I think it follows the Bèze much more successfully in 2006 than it did in 2005. Super.

The nose is reasonably fresh and quite wide. In this company the palate is very fresh yet still appears balanced. The fruit is tight yet ripe, but is wrapped in fine tannin that adheres to your teeth – they seem ripe enough. This is the youngest wine I’ve yet come across in this series of ’97’s, I would not hesitate in saying leave these for another 5 years. Seems to have real potential.

Deep ruby-coloured. High tones over a glossy base, plus some meaty and faintly herbal notes – great at the start, interesting but not great at the end. Depth, freshness and density, plenty of tannin, but only faintly astringent. Very nice fruit and length, needs at least another 3 or 4 years.

Deep ruby-coloured. High tones over a glossy base, plus some meaty and faintly herbal notes – great at the start, interesting but not great at the end. Depth, freshness and density, plenty of tannin, but only faintly astringent. Very nice fruit and length, needs at least another 3 or 4 years.

Corked! For what it’s worth, no drying tannins in this 98.

Unfortunately the first bottle was corked, hence, the replacement was a little colder. The nose starts tight and high-toned over a begrudging deeper base. Characteristically soft and silky palate, good concentration for a 2000 Beaune – 15% was declassified to achieve this – but still not the same mid-palate punch. If this wine has an extra dimension, it is on the finish. Again the tannins are excellent.