A dry year, with a 40% water deficit between the 2004 harvest the 2005 vintage, giving very different aromatics from most in this vertical. Still replete with the flavours and aromatics of a young wine, you find juicy fresh apricots, pineapple, citrus, lemon curd, ginger, spiced nuts. Tasted both at the estate and within the same week also in Singapore at a Sauternes brunch held at 67 Pall Mall, both times delivering an accomplished mix of power and precision. During the winemaking, they included a few grapes that were shrivelled from the heat alongside those affected by noble rot, to ensure there was enough bitterness in the aromatic palate, and this is gourmet, luxurious, impressive. Harvest September 27 through to October 27, an exact month. François Amirault winemaker.

This is so creamy, almost milky in feel, with toasted coconut and cashew notes giving way to sweet peach, apricot and glazed pear flavors that glide along, while ginger, green tea, lychee and kumquat flavors extend through the finish. Shows terrific range and definition. Feels like it's just starting to open, and is in no rush. Drink now through 2035. – JM

Tasted blind at the 10-Year On Tasting in Sauternes. The 2005 Château de Fargues has a rich and intense bouquet with layers of honey, dried peach, beeswax and acacia that soar from the glass. The palate is powerful and authoritative: intense botrytis-rich honeyed fruit with compelling mineralité underneath. It fans out in glorious fashion – a stunning de Fargues that is now beginning to show its talents. As I remarked a couple of years ago, just afford it a couple more years so that it can fully absorb the vestiges of oak. - Neal Martin