Having been consistently late yesterday, we have turned over a new leaf and were so early for the St Julien Union des Grands Crus tasting that they were still setting up when we arrived. There is a distinct nip in the spring air today, but it started sunny and crisp – excellent tasting weather. It has become a team tradition to stock up with furtive DIY sandwiches from the breakfast table. The hotel staff don’t appear to have noticed the sudden drain on their baguette resources, the experienced Mr Marus having trained us to cover our tracks.

The Leovilles were tasting particularly well yet again amongst the St Juliens – Barton and Poyferre my picks, but Langoa hot on their heels. Beychevelle was the flashiest, most international style, all polished bitter cherries and preened glossiness. If I were prone to sweeping statements, I might say more friendly to Asian and American palates.

Next, to the St Estephe and Pauillac UGC at Lafon Rochet, hosted by the gracious, all round good egg Basile Tesseron. The St Estephes (absentees Cos and Montrose excepted) are at the grippier tannic end of things, but this is entirely to be expected and there was some reasonably concentrated fruit on display too. The Pauillacs were on the whole a bit plusher and more opulent – think St Estephe but with a Lacoste cashmere jumper worn jauntily over the shoulders. Pichon Lalande was again excellent, as was Lynch Bages, both wines working the 2013 austerity chic vibe.

The more I taste 2013, the more a vintage character of pretty red perfume – rose petals – seems to emerge as a signature trait. Concentrated young Bordeaux can often be dense and blueberry-rich, but the cooler quality to the fruit this year appears to have allowed some attractive red aromatics to emerge.

Lunch next, in the impeccable dining room of Phelan Segur. Proprietor Thierry Gardinier had put together a melange of European wine merchants, plus the ubiquitous Beijing power couple. The influence of China is particularly apparent in Bordeaux this year. One chateau owner told us prospective Chinese buyers fairly regularly turn up unannounced on the doorstep offering to buy… not a case of wine, but the whole chateau. Blank cheques (or whatever the equivalent is in our post-cheque world) are allegedly proffered by Chinese tycoons to unsuspecting French vignerons on a regular basis throughout the Gironde these days.

The next appointment being in Pessac, we drove the length of the Medoc to the soundtrack of Mr Marus’ postprandial snoring. The Graves-Pessac UGC was, as we are coming to expect, a mish mash of the good, the bad and the over-extracted. Domaine de Chevalier red and white were both on fine form, if atypical, and Picque Caillou blanc was fresh and zippy, just so after a lot of tannic, blocky reds.

The graveyard final tasting slot had somehow been allocated to Bordeaux royalty Haut Brion and La Mission, but no matter, these wines have their own momentum, and we found ourselves apprehensively sitting down exam-style in the oak panelled tasting room at La Mission. Sad to say, they were clearly the product of a lesser vintage: whereas I was seduced by Margaux, I found myself scratching my head a little over Haut Brion. Obviously, this is partly due to the weight of expectation that we place on the first growths. But then, their price tag does set the bar rather high.

So a day of contrasts, and the number of wines tasted continues to tick up. We are now beginning to come across the same wines for the second time, and so our acquaintance begins. I do look forward to following some of these wines for years to come – some of them really deserve it.