In bottle only 2 days. Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts with easy red berry notes before slowly taking on depth and density. There’s plenty of reasonably fine-grained tannin and good balance. Slowly the wine widens in the mid-palate before fading into a decent finish. Nice balance here, and certianly it’s not lacking depth – though Christophe says that the bottling has stripped a lot of the aromas.

Very forward fruit on the nose – a meange of red fruits. Fresh, with a lovely ‘mouth perfume’ and shows a super width all the way to the finish. Very nice flavour on the finish. Reasonably tannic but a nice overall balance. A very tasty, precocious bottle.

Medium-plus colour. Forward, concentrated aromas of darker fruit with a little more depth than the 2006, faint white pepper notes too. Plenty of fine grained tannin, dense, concentrated and only slowly revealing its wares. A very long, though subtle, finish. I would actually say that this is a little in its shell, despite all that’s here to find. Super.

The nose offers up the 04 ‘vintage characteristic’ – [Christophe agrees that there were ladybugs everywhere but is unconvinced that they are responsible, though has seen no plausible alternative. On the positive side he quips ‘at least you always know the vintage in a blind tasting!’] – it provides a cover, but not on such a level that it spoils the red fruit aromas. Only medium concentration after the 2005, this is altogether on a softer, less ‘big’ level. The entry is quite narrow but the width comes as you head for the mid-palate then leaves your mouth slowly watering in the finish. The tannins stick a little to your gums and the overall balance is very nice. This is very tasty. Christophe: “It never tastes/feels like it smells – I like it for that”

Christophe likes this vintage. The aromas are ripe though not obviously 2003, that said the aromas are dense and less focused than the wines that went before, though still red-fruited. Plenty of grainy tannin, though they it’s not particularly astringent. An interesting and quite pronounced licorice flavour as you head into the mid-palate. This has quite a decent balance overall.