The remaining trio from the clarets that had been hogging the wine rack…

Château Preuillac Médoc 2004 (£14 Soho Wine Supply)
Nose is a combination of ripe, even overripe fruit with a smoky edge that tends towards the fishy (think smoked mackerel). There’s quite nice ripe blackcurrant, plum and berry, but then the dry finish speaks of too much new wood, and it doesn’t improve with time either. B-

Château de Lamarque Haut-Médoc 2004 (£17.99 Corney & Barrow)
A less ambitious wine than the Preuillac, but all the better for it. It’s more relaxed and more mature, and the smokiness here seems to speak of terroir rather than over-zealous winemaking. Slightly ristic, but honest and tasty. S-

Château Brown Pessac-Léognan Rouge 2006 (£25 Soho Wine Supply)
Classy fruit, classy oak, plummy, cedary intensity, plus a hint of woodsmoke, manages to be both tight and svelte, yet juicy at the same time woodsmoke, beautifully balanced with a silky, almost Burgundian finish, very moreish. S(+)