Andrew Jefford | Saturated dark black-red in color. Enticing scents of closely woven blackcurrant and fine spices over a creamy ground: skillfully done. There’s some orange-peel and tangerine finesse here, too. The wine is super-intense on the palate, its fruit gathered together into a tight ball; the finish is long and vivid. Its fully and freshly ripe, with ample blackcurrant and early-season black plum. Still youthful; the aromatic finesse evident in the aromatic profile has yet to emerge on the palate, but I’m confident it will come with time. This is surely one of the most concentrated wines of the vintage. It still has the vintage coolness stamped through it like a watermark, but this is a fine and athletic wine that is somehow bigger than the vintage. 2018–28. | 94

Michael Schuster | Dense, sweetly ripe Cabernet to smell, a finely persistent nose; rich, fresh, elegant, finely and firmly tannic, a lovely long-term balance; deep, savory, spicy wine, complex, long to taste, gently muscular, very long to finish; a top-quality, aristocratic Pauillac. 2034–44+. | 94