Deep colour, more garnet than ruby. The nose is quite meaty and fresh. The tannins, whilst not bad in texture, still require a couple or three years. Decent fruit concentration, and the 1996 acidity carries this wine much more interestingly than the previous ’95 Vosne. Today at least, this is a more appealing package for the acid-lovers amongst us.

Medium plus colour without obvious aging. The nose still betrays a little oak, otherwise high-toned black fruit, some sweetness too. Lots and lots of fruit on the palate and a reasonable balance between the succulence of the fruit and acidity vs the more drying and slightly bitter tannins. Starts a little disjointed but puts on a better show after half an hour or so if a little moth puckering.

Medium plus colour. Deep black fruit surrounded by a dry, spicy oak note – nice. The palate is concentrated, showing black fruit – almost a black olive note – very good acidity and decent length. The tannins have a little grain and a little bitterness too. This is certainly in the Grivot vernacular, extracted and needing a little time. With aeration the black fruit starts to take on a plum aspect, indeed if the the tannins were a bit thicker and more velvetty you could probably convince someone that this is a merlot! I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt, and I’ll also give my other two bottles several years.