Please allow me to thank Balzac Communications for this lovely, lively, and generous event.
My uninformed, warped, and yak-palate observations are below.
For red wines, the immediate drinkability, balance, perfume, and elegance of this already lauded vintage were remarkable, almost like the 2014 vintage, but up palpable notches in terms of complexity and texture, boding well for aging. Quite notable were reductions of the alcohol, oak, tannin, and sweetness levels which had been very controversial hallmarks of the Parker era. The ripeness was delicious and long, almost across the board, without being sugary or heavy. In a phrase, a feminine vintage which I would love to own.
To my own tastes, these chateaux performed very well:
Giscours
Durfort-Vivens
Cantemerle
Leoville Poyferre
Clerc-Milon
D’Armhailhac
Valandraud
Clinet
Le Bon Pasteur
Pichon Baron
Lynch-Bages
Canon
Larcis Ducasse
Pavie Macquin
Haut Bailly
Les Carmes Haut-Brion
However, I found Branaire-Ducru and Leoville Barton to be too tannic, and Gruaud Larose to be oddly thin. Pichon Lalande was good, and not tight or herbaceous, but somewhat in the shadows of others at this tasting.
Normally, we associate years which produce excellent reds as likely also to be too dry to foster the botytris which define Sauternes/Barsac; and, conversely, years which favor Sauternes/Barsac as likely to produce under-ripe or tougher reds. Of course, 1989 and 1990 were exceptions. Based on this tasting, the 2015 vintage somehow balanced things just right. De Fargues, Doisy-Daene, and Coutet were very rich and complex, interwoven with prominent notes of pineapple, butterscotch, and truffle.