(2025) Château Batailley (pronounced 'BAH-tay-yay') is a fifth growth Cru Classé, the 2016 composed of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. Aromatically this is delightful. It is still fruit driven after nine years, with cassis and glossy black cherry, but tinged with spices and mint, a little pencil-shaving note of finesse. In the mouth it is medium bodied and the tannins still pack a punchy grip. The fruit remains in the black spectrum, and there's a little meatiness and gaminess. The acid balance is lovely here, so between it and the tannins, the finish is dry though the core of fruit persists, pepper and graphite edges into the finish too. Very stylish for decanting and drinking now, or reasonably extended cellaring I'd guess.

(2025) It's always fascinating to taste a great wine over many years, my first tasting note on this dating from 2001, and here we are with a bottled cellared by me for over 25 years, and my last from half a case. Cork is firm, and the wine threw some sediment in the final centimetre. It is immediately aromatic and heady on the nose, wonderful game, tobacco and cedar with a rich mulberry fruitiness, hints of dried blood and some undergrowth coming through. In the mouth it is firm and still juicy, the black fruit is taut, with cedar and smoke swirling around it, a curranty, dried fruit edge of intensity. Tannins are very fine and now in the background, but the balance is perfect, with acidity of bitter orange and plum skin. Would guess this is on a plateau with a few years still to go.

(2024) This Cabernet Sauvignon dominated 3ème Cru Classé from Margaux has a good depth of colour and opens with attractive fragrance: earthy, ripe and plummy aromas, plenty of cedar and notes of tapenade. The palate is firm, arguably even a touch unyielding, certainly plenty of tannin making its presence felt. There is some juiciness there too, the mid-palate showing ripeness. Good length, acid well-judged. A little more about density and power than perfume or finesse.

(2023) 54% CS, 42% M, 4% PV. 14% alcohol. Very dark purple/black. There is a huge nose straight away with massive aromatics. It’s so floral! All the winemakers talk about freshness (boringly, as they all do it and it’s considered an unconditional positive) but this really is like wandering into a meadow packed with flowers. Remarkable! This is lighter in the mouth than I was expecting, with lovely tannins, good length. This is a really elegant Beychevelle with so much charm. This wine makes me smile. (JH). Tasted en primeur so score is provisional.

(2023) 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot. There’s a freshness to the classically Pauillac nose – almost schisty with a hint of wet stone. In the mouth, there are layers and layers of flavour. A sense of compact elegance. Very correct. This has something special – balance and harmony. An honest wine in a special vintage. (JH). Tasted en primeur so score is provisional.

(2022) From the Moulis region, close to Margaux, the blend is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. Vinified in both steek and oak vats, the wine was then aged 15 months in barrel, 40% new oak. There's a little more lift and fragrance to this than the Canon-de-Brem, a slightly leafy and raspberry note joining the black fruits and spices. So smooth and silky on the palate, the tannins really grip here still, the acidity so fresh and vibrant, but that smooth, medium-bodied layer of mid-palate fruit and touch of mocha coffee in the background is elegant and delicious.

(2022) Seventy percent of the blend here is Cabernet Sauvignon along with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. It has a classy, discreet, elegant nose, some cigar-box nuances over obviously ripe and deep blackcurrant fruit. Tobbaco comes through. In the mouth real sweetness of fruit here - really quite plush, but there is a firm tannin and herbal edge that keeps things quite strict towards the finish with a little iron oxide dryness.

(2022) A high proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon here (78%), with 20% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc from 38-year-old vines. Matured in barrels (55% new) for 18 months. Dark dense and mysterious, there's an immediate sense of youth and tightly-wound character here. There is cedar and something mineral and herbal flitting amongst the blackcurrant and blueberry fruit. In the mouth this has such concentration; ramps up from the previous wines, with tannins and acids in a silky, so refined combination. The fruit stays firmly packed into the mid-palate, but lingers with spices through the super-long finish. Magnificent stuff.

(2021) The 4th growth Beychevelle from 1985 has been one of my favourite ever wines for three decades now, a bottle from a case bought around 1989 having been drunk every few years. This the last of the dozen. Now the colour is still a lovely ruby, a hint of brick on the rim, though the nose and palate both show some age. There's a little autumn leaf, vegetal note that was not there on the previous bottle seven or eight years ago, but it does not detract: there is still so much to like. The palate still has that quite sumptuous, plummy fruit depth and swirling smokiness and hints of fudge and chocolate generosity, and the framework of tannins and now slightly more angular acidity give it tension and drive, making for a really enjoyable wine. Would I buy more of the 1985 at this stage? I'd say it is definitely just past its peak, but possibly would at the right price. Current price is shown below.

(2021) Having last tasted this 18 years ago, 'en primeur', when I rated it 87/100 and suggested that it was for early drinking, my expectations were tempered. There's still good colour, though that is pale and edged with brick. The nose is gamey and cedary, with a touch of green leafiness, but there is a black fruit in there too. The palate is a touch lean, but I really enjoyed this, a coffee depth of oak and juiciness there to the black fruit, actually the balance pretty solid. Probably not for extended cellaring but enjoyable for sure, perhaps surprisingly so, and proper mature Bordeaux.