Stephen Brook | The nose is herbaceous and a touch sweaty, and while ripe, it may not be optimally ripe. Grapefruit and green-apple aromas. Fresh and juicy, with a little greenness on the palate. Yet the acidity is marked and gives a pinched quality to the mid-palate. It just lacks some generosity, and the finish is blunt and not very persistent. | 85

Andrew Jefford | Steel gold. As with [the Pascal Cotat Sancerre La Grande Côte 2016], this is much less pungent than the Monts Damnés wines: broad and sweet-fruited, hinting at pollen and tree blossom, and summer fruits in place of citrus. Very attractive. On the palate, it is deep, broad, masterful, and amply constructed; once again, la Grande Côte seems to be the place to go if you want to taste Sancerre as its most “Burgundian.” A classy gastronomic wine whose Sauvignon identity is almost completely occluded. The fruits are fresh yellow summer fruits, and even the “stony” quality is different somehow: less powdery or chalky than in Mont Damnés, and more a golden building stone. A terrifically good wine and at the summit, surely, of world Sauvignon Blanc, in that it proves that this variety can serve a site and does not need to lord its varietal character over the site. True fine wine. | 95

Stephan Reinhardt | Again, this is a rather shy but deep and serious bouquet, with a concentrated white fruit and some nutty scents on the nose. Concentrated and densely woven on the palate, this is an elegant and salty-piquant, refined but powerful Grand Côte that is not spectacular but reliable, persistent, and very intense. Powerful and with good potential to age. Needs time... but once it’s had it, serve with a great fish. | 93