Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve | Two samples were tasted at two different times and in two different places, resulting in two certainties: This wine is the absolute epitome of Bordeaux, with its incredible harmony, aromatic diversity, tannic finesse, and feel in the mouth—at least in our view, which we are sure will be largely shared. As long as the corks do not falter... | 99–100

Michael Schuster | Deep, dark; black fruit-jelly ripe to smell; full-bodied, ample, a notably generous and fleshy Las Cases, fresh enough and firmly tannic; richly sweet and ripe in flavor, long, powerful, mouthcoatingly impressive, a wine of considerable volume, a giant in proportions for the cru, with great fruit and aroma persistence on the finish. A prodigious, imposing wine ("un bloc" was how the cellarmaster, Bruno Rolland put it!), a touch tannin-dry for the moment, but which élevage and time will doubtless tame and refine. And, given the leisurely pace at which the last muscular giant (1986) is mellowing, you are probably looking at a couple of decades before it makes sense to broach. 2038–60+. | 94–96+