1947 Château d'Yquem

The 1947 d'Yquem is a beautiful wine, soaring from the glass with scents of marmalade, vanilla pod, crème brûlée, apricot preserve and honeycomb. Full-bodied, rich and powerful while remaining lively and defined for the vintage, it's a seamless, layered wine that concludes with a long, penetrating finish.

Magnum. 145 g/l RS, TA 4.5. One of the hottest summers ever recorded and dry. Heatwave continued into autumn and gave a fantastic vintage 13 Sep – 13 Oct. Very dark fox red with greenish hints at the rim. Sweet and rich and creamy on the nose – very flattering and massive. Relatively high volatility with lots of nutty interest. Not the sweetest but very lively and compelling. Dense and driven – lots of energy and power. Slightly dry finish but very impressive. Bigger than the 1948 but perhaps slightly less winning. (JR)

From The Purple Notebook – Dinner in North London. Wonderful deep tawny. Deep caramel colour. Dried fruit notes on the nose, with a suggestion of candied nuts. Lovely dried-fruit finish. Currants and very, very fresh and lively. Very, very fresh. (So fresh I wrote it twice.) Creamy. Deep flavoured and quite amazingly long. (JR)