Bottle 7 from 12. On opening I hardly recognise this wine – the colour still has that young medium-plus cherry-red hue, but the nose has a slightly ashy, oaky aroma and the flavours are quite strident – what’s needed is a little aeration. Et voila: 3 minutes from opening this is aromatically singing, creamy deep redcurrant, indeed so creamy it’s faintly lactic but it is really wonderful. At the core there is a hint of something a little more mature, the ashy element has become a hint of leafy undergrowth, but just a hint. Clearly the acidity is a little ascendant now, but the mid-palate concentration remains enough that the wine is not mortally compromised and there is still an edge of tannin too. A long way from real maturity and still showing sufficient density and energy to keep me coming back for more.

This was lush, sweet and full of joie-de-vivre from barrel and also for it’s first 18 months in bottle – it was great fun – it’s now a different wine. It still retains that medium-plus cherry red colour and the nose is high toned and fresh though has now lost some bass notes. There is still sweetness and it retains a well-concentrated punch in the mid-palate, but today this wine has lost much of the lush foil to the acidity. It’s fresh and certainly not overly acidic now – but is more obviously tart than before. The last 5 or 6 can spend some time resting now…

A deep core of colour, fading a little to the rim. The nose is deep and tasty, nicely pure with sweet redcurrant, slowly revealing an edge of cedar just below the radar. Fresh, reasonably long, though certainly not as plush as 6 months ago. Still tasty and clean.

Medium-plus, purple-tinged cherry-red. A fresh coulis of black-skinned fruit greets the nose. The smooth palate shows nicely intense fruit – again black-shaded. There is plenty of tannin, but it’s currently very well wrapped in the fruit extract. Nice balance from the acidity and a really pleasing finish. If I can keep my hands of this wine I think it has quite some potential, not drinking these could be difficult. Not as exuberant as when tasted in barrel but a very good wine all the same.