A heavy nose of ample cream-edged fruit and new oak melds well with a fairly forward smoky, stemmy note. The plate lacks for a little poise with a ‘whoosh’ of fruit that is admittedly borne on lovely acidity. There’s plenty of oak on the finish too – though it’s a long finish. The scent clings well to the glass. Overall the aromatics, and to a certain extent the flavours too, are rather sweet, facile and vanilla-oak edged – indeed the ripeness is not even shaded by Romanée-Conti – but it’s characterful and quite athletic too. Needs 2-4 years to shed that facile, oak-influenced character but this has all the material to become really super.