Half bottle, plenty of dark sediment adheres to the inside of the bottle. The colour is taking on a slightly browner caste at the rim, relatively young and red it remains at the core. Hmm, the nose let’s us down, slight beefy aromas that hint to brett and a hint of VA too – just this bottle? Wait long enough and a sweet red cherry aroma starts to poke through, but it remains slightly veiled. In the mouth there is the expected pure, candied and detailed red berry fruit, the finish is pure strawberry – beautiful primary flavours still – and it’s 12 year-old Marsannay! The tannin is understated and shows no astringency – beautiful acidity. Lovely, lovely apart from the nose – my worst bottle…

Deep cherry red. The nose is sweet with some toasty oak and cooking red cherries. The palate is surprisingly fat and sweet. Nice acidity, well mannered tannins and lovely long fruit – red and black. This is really excellent. I expect that the oak (which is very well done) will soon start to add to the complexity – I bought a few more of these after this tasting.