2011 Sigalas Rabaud

The 2011 Sigalas Rabaud has a conspicuously deeper color than other vintages. This has an upfront, quite rich bouquet with passion fruit, ripe mangos, toffee apple and lime, decadent for the vintage and what feels like ample botrytis. The palate is ripe and unctuous, mango and toffee intermix on the entry. It's spicy and plush yet it doesn't fully have the acidity to avoid a slightly cloying finish. As such, I would drink this in the next several years. Tasted from a bottle sent directly from Sigalas Rabaud to the UK.

The 2011 Sigalas Rabaud has a lovely candle wax, butterscotch, saffron and quince-scented bouquet that bursts from the glass. The palate is well balanced with a viscous opening, perhaps not quite delivering the tension of its peers, though there is decent weight and depth on the slightly bitter finish. Fine. Tasted blind at the annual 10-Year-On tasting.

Tasted blind. Heady botrytis notes on the nose. A really serious wine with depth of flavour, as well as all the pruney sweetness. (JR)