The 2023 Almaviva is a blend of 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Carménère, 5% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. It is expressive and spicy with notes of wild herbs, incense, and smoked cedar wood. The fruit is rich with juicy dark berries and violet detail supported with a bright line of freshness. There is a charm and roundness on the palate with fleshy and supple tannins. Generous and layered with complexity there is a fine spiced note on the finish.

A blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Gris it is a very fine white that gives flinty notes with ginger and lemongrass. On the palate thare are flavours of peach skin, apricot, with a hint of green mango and guava. A touch of waxiness, grilled pineapple, and stone fruits comes through on the mid-palate with a zesty saline finish.

The 2020 Tronquoy is one of the best wines we've tasted from this estate. It offers cocoa dusted cherry, graphite, wild herbs, green tobacco. Sleek and sinewy in the palate, a modern style with a lot of energy and precision while notes of graphite, violets and black tea add complexity. Very pure and sinewy in style with iodine and kelp notes – lovely tension and fluidity. A wine you'll want a few cases of for the years to come.

The second wine of Clos Apalta, the 2022 is a blend of 59% Carmenere, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. There are flavours of dark berry fruit, violets and tapenade which clothe the supple, powdery tannins. This is a juicy, enjoyable wine with plenty of genorosity and lift.

The 2022 vintage was a slightly cooler vintage with a longer growing season which helped to gradually build complexity in the fruit. The wine is deep and intense with spiced notes of cedar, sandalwood and mineral accents of graphite. There are brightness and focus to the dark cherry fruit with a vibrant structure and energy that runs to the finish.

Unsurprisingly always one of my favourite tastings, the opulence of the Château coupled with the warm welcome never fails to impress. Fortunately, the wines lived up to their side of the bargain. Possibly comparable to the 2001, the 2014 is deep ruby colour, with a smoky, tobacco, earth, cassis and blackberry nose, silky tannins and fresh cherry and cassis on the palate. Made from 50% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, the complexity and attractiveness were once again simply incredible.

With 52% of production going into the first wine, La Mission bucked the trend on the left bank, preferring Merlot to Cabernet in 2014 - and therefore making a blend of 54% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc. An elegant, lifted nose precedes an intense palate of ripe black fruits supported by ripe, fine grained tannins and a long mouthwatering finish. This is stylistically comparable to the 2001: a long term prospect, this is a magnificent, majestic wine.

The Morgon Cuvée Classique is ruby red with a robust nose of complex red and black fruit aroma, as well as earthy notes. On the palate, it is similarly layered: sour cherry, black plum, dried flower and leather, with great depth and a lengthy finish. This is a lighter style of wine that nevertheless offers wonderful complexity and depth.

The 2023 Porseleinberg uses around 85% whole bunch. It is an intense and finely detailed wine that opens with notes of violets, black pepper, wild herbs and rock dust. Behind the ripe dark berry fruit there is a sinewy and tense core of kelp and graphite notes with a fine tapenade and iodine accent. There is a volume that builds through the palate with a persistence of a truly grand wine that speaks clearly of this rugged and rocky hillside. It will number among the greatest vintages of this wine.