(fined last week) Pale yellow. Knockout nose combines smoky vanillin oak, toasty reduction and iodine. Then extremely rich and powerful in the mouth, with a strong acid spine leavening the impression of solidity. This wonderfully tactile wine finishes with outstanding persistence. Lafon compares it in quality to the 2007 but says this one is richer.

The nose is troubled from the very late malo and thus quite difficult to fairly judge but the broad-shouldered and overtly muscular flavors possess serious power and imposing weight while carrying seemingly buckets of dry extract that really coat and stain the palate on the explosive and hugely long finish. It's clear that this is much, much less evolved than the other wines in the range and I suspect that it will develop equally slowly in bottle too.

Lafon's 2008 Montrachet Grand Cru is showing well, though it can't match the lovely 2009. Offering up a creamy, lactic bouquet of sweet orchard fruit and orange oil, it's medium to full-bodied, satiny and racy, with a comparatively taut, streamlined profile by the standards of this cuvée.

This bottle was decanted before serving. Quite a rich gold colour. But a delightful spark of flinty reduction on the nose. This casts the whole aroma into a sort of stony key, as un-fruity as the 2009 but savoury rather than sweet. With time, characteristic peach notes, plus the red apple typical of the vintage, start to emerge. The wine becomes amazingly exotic for this more austere year. There is really magnificent scale and structure here. It has a captivating, if slightly eccentric, personality. (AH)