Ch. Ausone, St Emilion. Photograph: Jason Lowe.

Today’s lesson was clear: it is going to be very hard to compare the 2015s to any other vintage. While there are many schools of thought, from both our team and producers alike, I think it is most important to consider it from a stylistic and quality point of view, making it hard to compare to any specific single vintage.

What is evident is that the wines of 2015 are much more restrained than we expected them to be. Having read the favourable weather reports and comments in the media with some interest last summer, we arrived in Bordeaux anticipating that the wines would be big, powerful and very generous. What we have found is wines of real focus, concentration and freshness. The wines seem to have an underlying power, tempo or depth. They are wines of finesse and elegance. They are complex and intriguing, rather than obvious, showy blockbusters.

In many ways this is an understated vintage. These are charming wines, modest in style, which don’t shout from the rooftops (but that’s not to say that they shouldn’t).

Some beautiful wines have been made for the long term: these display fleshy fruit and delicately balanced acidity. Merlot has been the prevalent factor in each of our favourite wines from today’s tasting on the Right Bank, confirming our thoughts of yesterday. But we won’t draw firm conclusions until the end of the week. We have a long day ahead of us on the Left Bank tomorrow. We have found excellent wines in all of the communes so far, St Julien, Pauillac, Pessac-Leognan, Margaux, St Emilion and Pomerol. Long may that continue.

Vieux Château Certan was one of our highlights today and it is a wine which very much adopts this understated characteristic. This wine is always far from showy; the underlying deep core is certainly strong, with such beautiful, soft and supple fruit displayed at the forefront.

Alcohol is high in Merlot on the Right Bank, but it is balanced expertly with Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon at Ch. Figeac. This is really lovely wine, it has an astonishing finish that feels like it might just go on forever… Everything seems to be in the right place here, there is such excellent harmony. After Ch. Palmer on Monday, tasting at Figeac was the second “wow” moment of our week.

The Ch. Ausone stable also impressed, with its early drinking Ch. de Fonbel and Ch. Moulin St-Georges being particular highlights. The Grand Vin also deserves special mention, alongside Ch. Petrus as two remarkably grown up and serious wines. They are so complex with layers of multiple flavour and super fine integration of silky tannins and acidity alongside the fruit.

Our afternoon was spent at a négociant, tasting many of the wines that we simply don’t have the time to visit individually during our week in Bordeaux. There were a number of wines of substance and style, although several don’t seem to have taken full advantage of the favourable conditions in such an effective way as others.

Echoing the sentiments voiced by Bruno Borie yesterday, Guillaume Pouthier, directeur at Ch. Les Carmes Haut-Brion, expressed his wish to create good wine for his customers to share with friends and family. “Wine is for pleasure and enjoyment,” he said. It’s refreshing yet again to find a winemaker who is so keen for his customers to take great pleasure when pulling the cork on one of his wines – which we are quite certain they will if his tremendous 2015 is anything to go by. The wine offers a unique and thoroughly enjoyable experience, with a true sense of place and hugely appealing minerality.

Check back tomorrow for our team’s next report.