Medium, medium-plus colour. Also rather tight but there’s a more caramel depth surrounding the tight core of glossy fruit. The structure initially seems completely separate to the fruit – then both come together perfectly. This super wine is clearly vin de garde material, so keep it in the cellar for a few years.

A deep, round and oakily creamy nose – quite clean though. Ripe and clean with real concentration and dimension. There’s lots of tannin but it’s balanced and long – impressive.

In hindsight it was more of a mistake not to ask for larger glasses in the restaurant than to delay the request for a decanter – this wine was a missed opportunity. Over about 90 minutes the wine never opened out on the nose, subdued aromatics of red fruit with a faint black edge. From time-to-time I imagined more, but then it was gone. The palate is that of a perfectly balanced, linear light-middleweight that is fine of tannin and shows good freshness. On this outing the length is also unremarkable. Too tight for interesting.