A really expressive St Julien this year, Gloria is bursting with aromas of violets and red berry fruit. The palate is detailed and refreshing with notes of red cherry, tobacco spice and toasted cedar. It has a sinewy grip of tannin while remaining very measured and mineral. A very fine Gloria.

A really expressive St Julien this year, Gloria is bursting with aromas of violets and red berry fruit. The palate is detailed and refreshing with notes of red cherry, tobacco spice and toasted cedar. It has a sinewy grip of tannin while remaining very measured and mineral. A very fine Gloria.

The 2024 Clos Fourtet is an impressively perfumed wine. So seductive and ethereal there are aromas of cherry blossom, white pepper and star anise. There is a feeling for energy and vibrancy that runs through the palate here, very much in balance with an obvious terroir signatures. The finish has excellent tension and saline freshness.

Bright and refreshing, with vibrant notes of white peach, citrus, and white grapefruit. The palate is clean and focused, with a fine line of acidity and a subtle floral lift of jasmine. A touch of salinity on the finish adds complexity, making it a crisp, thirst-quenching white.

One of the highest ever proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend this year at 90% this is a brooding and restrained Léoville Barton that opens with notes of cedar, graphite and pencil shavings. For the moment it is tense and with a real sense of classicism and energy with firm, supple Cabernet tannins framing the black fruit core. It’s a wine that bridges old and new – precise, tense, and vibrant with a fine gravelly mineral note on the finish.

The Langoa this year is very expressive and perfumed from the outset. It delivers bright red berry and hedgerow fruit with a sense of salinity and sapidity. There are fine and detailed notes of graphite and gravel with a lift of violets and cherry blossom. There is freshness and focus by the glassful here with a lovely sinewy finish with an accent for fresh wild herbs.

Coming from four parcels of vines in the Condrieu appellation this wine has been aged almost entirely in older oak to avoid masking the delicate fruit flavours. It is a coiled and saline example of Condrieu with a real sense of tension. It offers vivid aromas of white peach, honeysuckle and apricot while the palate is wonderfully refreshing with a hint of white grapefruit and a real sense of purity and focus on the finish. An excellent Condrieu from Graeme and Julie.

While definitely showing plenty of Lynch Bages signature, this feels beautifully classic and understated. It opens with a subtle spiced nose of sandalwood and a little cedar before a fine mineral tinge floods the palate with notes of oyster shell, violets, and iodine. There is a bright cherry blossom note with a fine, tense and sinewy structure to the tannins. The finish is long and mineral with a sense of restraint.

Quite simply an extraordinary wine to mark an extraordinary moment. A newly created category of 80 year old Tawny brings with it a wine of profound complexity. Rum and raisin, glazed walnuts and dried fig float from the glass. Burned caramel, polished mahogany the flavours continue to develop. There is huge concentration and power here, but such sublime balance. Each sip is remarkable.

100% Merlot from clay soils and the first year of Anne-Laurence in their new winery. The wine is vinified in concrete before ageing in foudre with no new oak influence. This has imbued the wine with a real sense of elegance and freshness. A very pretty wine, it offers notes of violets, wild hedgerow fruit and sapidity and energy. It is fine boned with an ethereal quality and a delicate and charming red fruit finish.