Hmm wide a hint of sous bois bit more flowers. Lovely depth. Hmm a direct wine, a sleek wine, fine textured, long, layered finishing – hyper elegant corton, delicious too, and not lacking any depth. A super 88 vs those of my memory…

Hmm I had this two years ago – but at Bouchard. This also starts with quite leafy aromas of undergrowth. Much narrower, this ripples its muscles right from the outset, never really softening up – I only had it in my glass for 30 minutes. The core is of sweet, dark red fruit. Overall mineral and long, but probably drunk 20 years too soon

Medium colour. Width, quite tight aromas but a good, chocolate-edged depth, slowly opens out and sweetens. Muscular, but very sleek – there’s no fat here. Plenty of fine tannin – very impressive.

Medium colour. The nose starts with a herby top-note and a little meat below, it slowly develops a sweeter core of spiced plums. In the mouth this is full of dimension and some reasonable tannin too – the flavour is slightly savoury and inflected with coffee. Good sweetness and no lack of balance helps produce a decent finish. Unlike many from the vintage, there’s a real smoothness here – impresses. Half a bottle was left in the refrigerator overnight and next day it was acid-forward and not so nice, though my single glass was always rather cold. So on the third day, at room temperature (~19°C – the weather was cold!) the impression was somewhere between the last two days. So initially a very tasty if not stunning grand cru. Drink it straight away, watch your serving temperature and you will be rewarded!

Deeply coloured at the core. Wide and savoury aromatics that give the impression that you are about to meet a tannic beast. Actually the tannin only comes through quite late as you get to the finish – before that it’s silky-smooth. Eventually red berries start to appear on the nose. Black-edged fruit is the main palate component. Long but faintly so. Certainly more youthful than you would expect at 20 years, I would say that it needs about 5 more years in a standard cellar to start to enter its maturity phase.

Medium, medium-plus colour. A deep core of fruit with layers becoming ever darker at the edges. The silkiest mouth-feel of any of these wines and undisguised power at it’s core. Undemonstrative yet impressive.

There are many dimensions to this deep, wide and dense nose, though the fact that it’s been in bottle only a few days might have taken away a little gloss. Very soft entry on the palate but you are soon bathed in soft, finely grained tannin. There’s real concentration yet there is balance too. The wine opens out well on the palate and is impressively long. This will require years and years in bottle, but is always well priced for the quality.

Medium-plus cherry-red. The nose has really impressive black-shaded depth with a twist of oak, tightening with time and slowly taking on an unusual spicy, creamy, fresh-ginger note – if you wait an hour or so the nose has a much more classic profile. In the mouth there’s concentrated ripe fruit. This wine has a very round and balanced personality with acidity and tannin that you hardly notice. Really a very sophisticated wine and one I’ll be please to cellar.

Philippe Prost is very proud of this wine, he thinks it could be the best he’s ever vinified. The nose is deep and brooding, only grudgingly gives up it’s complexity at this temperature. It’s not so fat as the previous wines, much more classically balanced. Excellent length, quite a flourish too, with mouth-gripping tannins that underline 10 years sleep in the cellar for best results. I will most likely buy some of this.