Tasted blind at Southwold ’06 Bordeaux tasting. This has an ethereal, lifted, supremely well defined nose with superb clarity and transparency with aromas of blackberry, Doris plum, dates, minerals, pain grille and cigar box. The palate is full-bodied with sinewy tannin that lends it a rigid backbone, building to a crescendo of dense black fruit laced with allspice. Huge grip and great length, this is a magisterial Saint Emilion.

Planted in pure limestone above Gerard Perse’s other famous vineyard/terroir, Chateau Pavie, this 10-acre site’s vines average 47 years of age. Fashioned from remarkably low yields, this blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc is a powerful, dense, tannic wine that will require considerable time to round into shape. It exhibits a dense purple color along with sweet aromas of mulberries, black currants, minerals, cold steel, graphite, and background spice. Full-bodied, highly-extracted, dense, and made in an unfashionably tannic, broodingly backward style, this is a wine for the ages. It requires 8-10 years of cellaring, and should last for 25-30+.

Bright, saturated ruby. Perfumed nose combines kirsch, blackberry, licorice and violet with a pungent rocky minerality. Supple and silky on entry, then densely packed and powerful in the middle, with superb calcaire energy. For all its sweetness and intensity, this shows a brooding medicinal character and great solidity, like sucking a mouthful of rocks. A tightly coiled spring gives this wine brilliant verve and definition. The tannins saturate the entire mouth without coming off as hard or dry on the very long, rising finish. I'd forget about this beauty for a decade.

Shows very floral, almost exotic fruit on the nose and palate. Full-bodied, with racy tannins and a long, silky finish. Pretty and focused. James Suckling