Opaque black purple.

Saturated black-purple: a deeper colour than the 2005 barrel sample alongside it. Aromatically smouldering and beefy, again very different to the floral grace of 2005, and more typically Pauillac.

Opaque black-purple.

Dark garnet; beginning to turn brick-red at the meniscus. Pure, elegant, tapered aromas: the classical cedar and pure currant of Médoc Cabernet, but expressed with great restraint and subtlety.

Mature appearance: glowing red, warm ox-blood. Ripe, resinous, exotic aromas; wax; hay in a barn. Smooth, soft, rich and unsual Latour: buxom, open, generous.

Mature, though holding well; no hint of visual decline. Aromatically grand: a sweet Havana-leaf warmth; resins and spice.

Still dark red-black in colour. Aromatically evolved, and highly attractive: little fruit (the ghost of dark plums) but a fragrant, mentholated warmth and a dusting of spice.