2016, Château Gazin, POMEROLBordeaux Blend: Merlot, Cabernet Franc. A rich and elegant Gazin, cohesive yet still extremely young. You can taste the Cabernets coming through strongly, an elegant, stately expression of cassis with a silky texture and nice balance. The palate is intense and concentrated but with a real sense of lift. It's always a wine that takes its time to show its colours as it's a touch austere in its first five to eight years, but this is going to age

and it benefits from the sort of careful winemaking normally reserved for cru classé wines

certainly more about power than finesse

finishing very long and mineral-laced

Not so expansive but layered vertically with tobacco

An improved version of the 2009 (if that's possible)

exhibiting perfumed aromatics of dark-toned berry fruit

spice and liquorice develop in the glass

and in between is air

but very precise with a touch of spice right on the finish

Light cherry in colour

Supremely focused with a surfeit of tension on the finish

and in the pursuit of elegance