A deep core of colour, just the last vestige of cherry at the rim. The nose is deep and dense if rather bashful to start, showing little more than dark flashes of toasty, sweet oak – fortunately this remains an undertone before fading as a dense and primary deep red note comes through that becomes finer with aeration – I can only summarise it as ‘very sexy’. After wine #2 this is altogether denser, softer and with riper fruit too. It’s brimming with intensity and concentration – it’s a real mouth-filler – showing a lovely expansion in the mid-palate before slowly narrowing in the good finish. In the background there plenty of soft texture from the tannins, but they will need a few more years in the cellar to shrink. Everything about this wine is more fun and lush than the Jadot Bèze, if rather less tight and precise.

More of a tasting recollection as this note is taken around two days later. Medium cherry-red colour. The nose is a beauty; impressively deep red fruit swirling with creamy notes that have a subtle vanilla edge. In the mouth the wine shows a classic structure for long aging; very good acidity, fine tannins and fruit that shows a real burst of intensity. Not the concentration of the 1999 and also very primary, but still it’s very tasty. A haunting creamy finish that is redolent of the nose – a very fine wine.