Aristocratic, firm and artfully balanced, with a lightly herbal and violet-like scent of briary fruit and classy new oak. Its deep flavours of small berries, dark cherries, plums and cassis overlie nuances of dried herbs, undergrowth, charcuterie-like complexity and toasty, cedary dark chocolate oak. Long and vibrant, its pristine palate is supported by firm, grainy and powdery tannins, before finishing with persistent and slightly meaty dark fruit.

Stylish, elegant and marginally herbaceous, this finely composed and dusty cabernet has a fragrance of cassis, dark plums and lightly smoky cedar/vanilla oak backed by snow pea and capsicum aromas, with a faintly meaty aspect. Firm but still supple and silky, it’s charmingly pliant and deeply flavoured, but despite its lingering core of classic small berry cabernet flavour, reveals an underlying thread of herbaceousness.

A very stylish, St-Julien-like cabernet whose rather dusty, floral bouquet of dark fruits and fragrant cedar/chocolate/vanilla oak reveal undertones of earthy complexity and a hint of dried herbs. Sumptuously fruited, ripe and juicy, its plush flavours of small berries and plums are still tightly restrained by firmish, bony and fine-grained tannins and backed by smooth, sweet oak. It finishes quite savoury, with pleasing length and texture. It clearly has many years to develop.

A measured, elegant and red-fruited cabernet whose dusty, cedary aromas of small red berries, baked earth, chocolatey, creamy and faintly meaty oak and delicate herbal notes precede a long and polished palate that slowly fills out with aeration. Supported by a slightly sinewy and powdery spine, itÕs plump, juicy and faintly stewed flavours of small red and black berries and cedary oak extend towards a lingering, kernelly finish. Lacks the presence and balance of the top vintages.