Medium, medium-pale golden. After the Beaune, the nose is certainly of finer fruit and of similar depth, though less wide. Hints of lanolin and a faint, creamy brioche too. Softer, silkier, just a little narrower on entry, but on super acidity it expands across the palate much more impressively. It’s also very long with a more savoury element than the last bottles. Interestingly, all the constituent parts favour the Puligny tonight, but the ‘team’ performance is not quite as together as the Beaune’s. The Beaune has nothing like the density of the Puligny, and surprisingly seems the more mineral. Day two this is very ‘together’ and the clear leader.

Bottled end of February, elevage in 50% new oak. Just a little extra yellow colour. This has a beautiful, fine and complex nose that shows plenty of floral aspects. Pure, textured depth seems to whisk you all-too-soon to the finish, but balance is restored as it’s a very long finish. Not a wine of overt power, but the delivery is fantastic, eventually taking on an extra mineral dimension. Double-super!

The nose has less overt width, rather a really dense core of fruit – eventually becomes a little more

expressive with a faint brioche note. Clearly more concentration despite lower (13.5%) alcohol. Smooth

texture and much more minerality than the villages. The length again is quite savoury and mineral. Super

balance. Only ‘very fine’ versus the 2005’s ‘outstanding’, though the value clearly remains.

The nose is not so deep as the Champs-Gains, a little tighter but with a clear extra width. The action here is on the palate; mouthfilling then rather hauntingly and understatedly long. This has tightened since last tasted, the waves of attack are on a lower level. Still very, very classy.

The nose starts wide but subdued and a little unfocused, it takes a good 15 minutes in the glass before we have cohesion and a primary dense stance. There’s a lovely texture to the palate and a real extra dimension helped by just a little petillance and super acidity. It takes the same 15 minutes a as required for the nose to improve for the faint spritz to die – perhaps it was also affecting the aromatics. Now we have poise and from the mid-palate onwards, waves and waves of attack – wow – this will be (is) superb. For thos that are concerned about oxidation, note that about a glass and a half were left in the simply stoppered bottle for about 3 days – the wine was almost as good then and not a hint of oxidation. I rarely go for more than a six-pack of any wine, but I ordered 12 of these!