Domaine Jean Chauvenet Nuits-St-Georges Premier Cru Les Vaucrains 2006: This wine has a rather bright and vibrant hue, with an intense but not deep cherry red. Obviously youthful on the nose too, with very primary cherry fruit to the fore. On the palate a nicely composed substance, a rather quiet structure to it, and a very bold presence of fruit hidden within an ungiving shell, hard and composed, with good acids in the background. This seems very simple at present, but it has the substance to age nicely. 16+/20

Château Montrose (St Estèphe) 2005: A fine opportunity here to taste this, as I have some in the cellar. The aromatic profile consists of a very rich but well-honed presence of fruit, clearly very youthful, but pleasingly still open to assessment even though we are now at five years of age. On the palate the fruit has an intense but still very primary character, well polished despite its youth. Having had such attractive aromatics lull me into a false sense of security, the palate is more as I would expect at this moment, showing all substance and structure and no pleasure at the moment. The texture has a great, polished style, very firm and composed, bitter almost, with firm and ripe tannins which are actually very well hidden, together with an appropriate seam of acidity. Very savoury, restrained, masculine and in need of time. Perhaps a couple of decades, or maybe more, will do it? 18.5+/20

Château Mouton-Rothschild (Pauillac) 2007: Perhaps the least favourable vintage for Bordeaux in the past decade, which only makes it all the more interesting to revisit. This wine, from magnum, has a very fine and evocative nose, here very open, and full of the classic Mouton spice overlaid on ripe Pauillac fruit, all presented in a soft but rather charming frame indicative of the character of the vintage I think. Alongside there are more edgy aromas of coffee bean and green olive. There is an attractive substance on the palate although it comes across as very dry at present, but there is a reserved style which should do very well with further time in the cellar. All the same, this will come around much sooner than many other recent but more substantial vintages of Bordeaux. It is just a shame that the price will never reflect that. 17+/20

Château Palmer (Margaux) 2002: The blend in this fascinating vintage is 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 8% Petit Verdot. This wine has a very dark colour and an attractive nose, a little smoky, with a touch of black olive. The palate has a very well defined, direct, accurately honed palate, with a structured and reserved presence. It is showing some promising substance but like a number of other 2002s I have tasted recently the structure dominates at the moment. This is clearly a good wine made in an under-rated vintage, which simply isn't ready yet. It needs at least 3-5 years in the cellar yet I think. 17+/20

Château Rieussec (Sauternes) 2005: As I wrote in my vintage report back in 2007, the 2005 growing season was blessed with botrytis. And yet in my early tastings, the vintage never really showed much of this character, and this impression is maintained here. This wine has an aromatic character very typical of passerillage, full of crystalline-candied fruit, with a rather dried-desiccated feel to it. On the palate it has a light and bright pineapple character very closely aligned with the nose in style, backed up by a sweet, fleshy, slightly oily texture, and some nice acidity giving it a very clean and stylish substance. Fine. 17+/20

Château Montus Madiran Cuvée Prestige 2003: This more recent vintage carries an awe-inspiring 15% alcohol. On inspection it has a sweet and glossy hue. The nose isn't that expressive, but on the palate it has a big and bold substance, certainly very rich, and it seems highly extracted too. Whether that was intentional or inevitable in such an unusual vintage is difficult to know, but it carries a great pile of tannins, with a hot and raw structure. And there is little in the way of perfume or complex flavour here, mirroring the closed character on the nose. It is difficult to judge this mass of structure but it doesn't fill me with hope. 14.5+?/20

Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 2007: This very pale, water-white wine has a very light and aromatic presence, and it is not showing anything like the substance yielded by the 1989. Perhaps that is just an unfair comparison. Very pale fruit on the nose, lifted in style, although if you look hard enough there is an appealing minerally seam behind it. An attractive character on the palate, very cleanly defined, but it does not even hint at the pleasure that will come with time. This needs years - maybe a decade, maybe two? 17.5+/20

Reichsrat von Buhl Ungeheuer Forst Grosse Gewachs Riesling Trocken 2008: Chalky minerality to the fore here, together with a light and fresh fruit with a rather sweet and herby edge to it. The palate shows a quite dry character of course, this being a wine classed as Grosse Gewachs, with plenty of spice and mineraliness underneath. Quite substantial, but also quite punchy through the middle; it will be interesting to see how this ages. Will it match the depth, interest and longevity of more traditional styles? 16+/20

Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga 2006: This 100% Nebbiolo has a youthful, pale, cherry-red hue. The nose is sweet and smoky, and is clearly cut from the same cloth as the 1989 served alongside, but in a much more primary character, although still with an appealing perfume. There is good substance on the palate, rounded and full of promise, albeit with a very robust structure underneath that the wine will do well to keep covered. It seems to manage that at the moment. A very typical style which should age slowly and gracefully. 15.5+/20

Antinori Tignanello (Toscana IGT) 2005: This wine has a very youthful and vibrant hue. The aromas are intense and concentrated with cherry fruit, quite gamey with substantial character on the nose. There is certainly plenty of promise here. The palate shows a great combination of substance and structure, showing the young, biting, acidic substance of barely adolescent Sangiovese with a fine backbone and a little vein of tannins behind it all. This really attractive and full of promise. It needs time in the cellar, another 3-5 years at least I think. 18+/20

Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva 2005: The same young vintage as the Tignanello served alongside, and this wine stands up extremely well in comparison. It is intense although really quite withdrawn at present on the nose. There is an impressive substance to the palate though, showing a real depth of concentrated fruit, bringing a rather meaty, gamey, furry character to the wine. There is a good backbone of structure and a firm acidity too though. Plenty of ripe tannin though the middle and at the end, all very nicely composed. This is well set up for the future. 17.5+/20

Bodegas Piqueras Gran Marius Almansa Reserva Selección 2005: A slightly different wine to the 1989 Gran Reserva served alongside. There is a layer of sweet and intensely concentrated fruit on the nose. Great substance on the palate, sweet fruit with an intense and bold kick from the structure of the wine. There is a robust presence of structure, a firm layer of tannin and bright acidity which together give the wine a hard structure, although to be fair this a quite well hidden beneath the fruit. An interesting wine although not one set up for two decades in the cellar I think. 14.5/20

Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial 2001: Like the 1989, poured from a double magnum. Also like the 1989, another vintage that I have resting in my cellar. Quite a concentrated hue on inspection. There is a good richness evident on the nose, sweet with a slightly cooked fruit character, intense, full of appeal, with a complex gamey style behind it. To my mind the palate is still painfully primary, full of concentrated linear fruit, supple substance and a fine, linear definition to the structure. I think there is remarkable potential here, but it would be easy to dismiss its intense, high-toned, slightly stewed substance at this early juncture; but give it another 10-20 years and this could well be magnificent. 18.5+/20

Vega Sicilia Unico (Ribera del Duero) 2000: Even before we have a taste this wine has a remarkable story; a green harvest taking 40% of the crop, a yield thereafter of 20 hl/ha, and seven years in vat and barrel before release in 2009. The blend is 93% Tempranillo and 7% Cabernet Sauvignon. A great, sweet, concentrated fruit nose here. Fabulously concentrated aromatic character, with layers of red and back fruits, sweet and well delineated, with a lifted freshness despite all those years in wood. It also has that complex, meaty, spicy-savoury beef stock element to the fruit that can make the wines of this region so fascinating. Superb character. On the palate it is broad, warming, concentrated and still remarkably tannic, but also very balanced and correct. Great breadth and depth, all very well defined with evolving complexity already. This very fine effort will go for decades. Superb, a vin de garde I would be delighted to have in the cellar. 19+/20

Chateau Musar (Bekaa Valley) 2003: This is far younger than I would usually approach any vintage of Château Musar, nevertheless it does show undeniable Musar character even at this early juncture. It has a good depth of colour although it isn't an intensely dark Musar. On the nose it is very true to form, showing deliciously sweet fruit nuanced with cloves, with a dried and spicy character. Typical Musar on the palate although with lots of youthful exuberance, very sappy and substantial too, richly imbued with structure. It is rather reticent in some respects, quite hard, withdrawn and peppery-spicy here, but these awkward elements of adolescence will fade with time. And then it should be very good. 17+/20

Meerlust Estate Rubicon (Stellenbosch) 2006: This very recent vintage is a blend of 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Franc, aged in a mix of French oak barrels, 65% new and 35% on their second vintage. It has a rather modern and youthful nose, full of sweet fruit, but also something darker, possibly related to extraction and structure in the fruit. It does have a very sweet and focused composition, still very primary, with a dense, dark concentrated fruit-skin character. This has plenty of potential and should do very well over 10-15 years. 17+/20

Warwick Estate Trilogy (Simonsberg-Stellenbosch) 2007: This wine has the usual blend of three varieties, with 64% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% each of Cabernet Franc and Merlot aged in French oak (60% new) for up to 24 months. The wine has an intense and dark hue. There is a layer of crunchy fruit on the nose, ripe, sugary sweet and very primary. This comes through on the palate, a slightly caramelly-toasty character perhaps reflecting the barrel preparation. Substantial, sweetly-fruited, but nicely structured too. I suspect this will do well in the cellar, but it needs 5-10 years. 16.5+/20

Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) 2005: This very young example of Cabernet has a wealth of sweet, intense, gamey and very concentrated fruit. In style it has a very straightforward and primary character, but it is substantial, with rich and gamey fruit like that seen on the nose. And underneath there is a good tannic backbone and fresh acidity. But overall this is very, very backward, and at this point in time I find it difficult to say much else. Except that I suspect this needs at least 5-10 years before it will be even approachable, to my palate at least. 17.5+/20

Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon (Stag's Leap District) 2005: In contrast with the Silver Oak, this an intense and perfumed character on the nose, with a more complex aromatic profile, smoky and slightly tobacco-tinged fruit. The palate is dense, with plenty of sweet fruit, showing a structured and stylish substance, with plenty of potential for future development on top of the character seen on the nose. But, like the preceding wine, there is a very primary and intense character to the fruit here, and this requires another 5-10 years in the cellar at least. 17+/20