This wine gave me the shock of my tasting-note life on May 12th 2005, when Andrew Caillard brought 114 wines from the Langton's Classification pool over to the UK and served them blind. This was my pick of the Cabernets and Cabernet blends (I gave it half a point more than Cullen's Cab-Merlot), yet it was so different to the rest of its peers. In place of the rigid acidity which defaces so many Australian Cabernets, it had a naturalness of articulation which fell across the palate like balm.

Warm, pure, sweet-fruited scents with a smoky edge. Deep, gutsy and vivid, drying slightly towards the end, but a very attractive mouthful.

Perfumed fruits dominate this cask sample; the oak needs time to integrate. Vivid, fresh, lively and chunky, this concentrated wine shows some of the angularity and awkwardness of the vintage. If this rounds out in bottle, the wine could well merit a higher score.

Energetic fruit scents with a cocoa-dusted sweetness; the classically vivacious acidity of 05, with a caress of oaky warmth; a hint of violet to finish. Levels of extract are well above the Castillon norm, yet because of the ample build of the wine, nothing is dry or obtrusive. The finest d’Aiguilhe so far.

Saturated black colours. Great aromatic complexity already, with layered floral, fruit and spice notes: hugely seductive. Intense, vivid, sappy and vigorous on the palate, with huge on-board resources of punchy, power-drive plum and sloe fruits. Taut and tight-skinned, with deft tannic definition, yet astonishingly deep below the water line - one has the feeling that one really is tasting the tip of the iceberg. This is a grand, long-haul mouthful (15 years +) which strikes just the right balance between sweet fruits and bitter-edged intensity. Angelus just keeps on getting better.

I vividly remember visiting Champagne in August 2003, and seeing the looks of astonishment, bewilderment and exasperation on the faces of the growers as they panted about the vineyards, trying to get pickers home half-way through their August holidays for the earliest and perhaps the weirdest harvest in living memory.

Pale gold in colour. Fine, powdery, discreet scents. Intense, stony and mineral on the palate: bracing and pure. A little finishing perfume, but little texture or cream as yet. (Just 6 g/l dosage.)

Medium to full gold. Sweet, flowery, blossomy scents of great enchantment: honey and linden. On the palate, dry, aromatic and flowery with controlled aromatic power; dry, lingering finish, fresh with mountain herbs. Characterful, memorable Champagne.