My second day tasting Bordeaux 2017 started in bright sunshine at Château Haut Bailly. The purity of the wine in the past few vintages here has been unsurpassed and their terroir in Pessac-Léognan is wonderful. Frost took out a plot from production but there is finesse and elegance to this 2017. Ten minutes away, in contrasting but equally beautiful terroir, Château Smith Haut Lafitte has delivered the goods once again. The whites are brilliant, showing what a great vintage 2017 is here potentially for white wine. The reds are plump, and very well-upholstered with plenty of fruit and freshness. Excellent stuff. At Château La Mission Haut-Brion the remarkable quality of the whites was again underscored. Château La Mission Haut Brion Blanc and Château Haut-Brion Blanc are fabulous – though they never put a foot wrong with the whites mind. The reds are impressive, combining of the structure and fruit of 2014 perhaps with the freshness of 2008. La Mission is more approachable than usual in 2017 and Haut-Brion felt the fractionally deeper of the two. Both show wonderful purity.

Cos has done it again. Following on from a successful 2015 [in what was actually a pretty tricky vintage for St Estèphe], 2016 is perhaps the most successful vintage here since the fabulous 2010. As ever the precision is exceptional. The wine is defined by a wonderful seam of bright, voluptuous fruit. There are many layers to the palate and the tannins are beautifully refined. The balance overall is exceptional. This is potentially epic Cos in a new sense. Pagodes de Cos [some 55% of the estate’s production] also looks very good in 2016, in a vintage that is clearly very successful for St Estèphe. Finesse and harmony are the hallmarks again here.

2014’s Indian summer looks to have proved very successful for the quality of the Médoc vintage and its raft of enjoyable crus bourgeois [tasted at Château d’Arsac in photo]. There are plenty of properties to recommend here. It is a vintage that suits the virtues of the appellation. The wines are vigourous, as you’d expect, but also with considerable depth of fruit and concentration. They offer medium term prospects for the cellar [long term in certain cases] but their aromatic complexity and freshness will make them enjoyable early on. Yields are down for some properties, particularly those who suffered from the catastrophic hailstorm of early June. Without a doubt, qualitatively speaking 2014 is the best vintage here since 2010. It is particularly successful for the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc varieties.

Château Cos d’Estournel has produced a dense, serious wine in 2012. It comes across as more immediately polished than arch rival Montrose, perhaps firing on six-cylinders as opposed to Montrose’s eight, though Cos’s opulence makes its overall power a bit deceptive. The comparison between the two will be fascinating down the line even if Montrose has the edge in terms of sheer power. The real difference here is on price. Cos recently released at around £990 [$1500] a case. It makes Montrose [£660/$1000] look good value, and Calon-Ségur [at £440/$700] perhaps particularly so. Still I expect Cos see this as cheap given recent pricing here, though I wouldn’t like to be a merchant charged with having to shift it [as good as the wine undoubtedly is].