The 2015 Denarius from Liber Pater comes from the lieux-dits of Barreyre and La Houquette, a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot cropped at 15 hectoliters per hectare. It has a rather Port-like bouquet, touches of ground coffee granules percolating through the dense black plum fruit. The palate is smooth on the entry, a little grainy in texture with mulberry and fig notes towards the finish. I would have liked to see more tension and energy in this wine, because it lacks a little spark at this early juncture.

Loic Pasquet has parlayed his plot in Graves to be the source of stratospherically priced red bordeaux. One of his USPs is his mix of old, ungrafted grape varieties, in this case Petite Vidure, Tarnay, Castet and St-Macaire grown in gravel. The wine was aged for all of five years with 20% new oak. Just 1,500 bottles made. Denarius is Latin for money. Smudgy garnet colour. This definitely hasn't been clarified! Sweet, smudgy red bordeaux with the merest hint of hamster cages. There is absolutely no way I would pay £350 for a bottle of this! It seems a little sour on the end and both sweet and with rather rustic tannins. It's different …! But even I, the greatest fan of unusual grape varieties, don't really see why these old ones should be better than the tried and tested ones grown by everyone else. But the wine is impressively persistent. My score is for curiosity value. (JR)