The 2019 Péby Faugères has a typically opulent bouquet, although I find this to show more detail and delineation than the Faugères, with lovely black cherries, boysenberry and iodine aromas, violets emerging later. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe tannins that frame the layers of concentrated black fruit laced with sea salt and truffle. Good grip on the finish - this is a mighty impressive Péby Faugères, albeit one that will require cellaring.

The 2019 Peby Faugères is superb. Inky dark fruit, bittersweet chocolate, crushed rocks, licorice, smoke, sage and scorched earth all come alive with a bit of aeration. In the glass, the 2019 is powerful, tannic and concentrate, but also vibrant, with terrific energy pulsing through it.

The 2019 Péby Faugères bursts with aromas of vanilla pod, minty berry fruit, dark chocolate and creamy new wood. Full-bodied, polished and seamless, it's more refined than Le Merle (Péby Faugères is a 100% Merlot cuvée produced from the Faugères's best parcel), though with similar generously extracted tannins and livelier acids, concluding with a lavishly oak-inflected finish. It's a success in its genre, but Péby Faugères remains firmly stuck in the aesthetic of the early 2000s while the rest of the wine world moves on around it.