Andrew Jefford: Saturated black-red. Very amply oaky scents behind which it is hard (at present) to see the fruit. Very sweet, very oaky, very tannic: raisiny fruits, searing blackcurrant acidity. I’m sure a huge amount of work has gone into this, but it’s a little bit drying and laborious to get through now, and even when mature, I suspect it will always be pitched somewhere between raisiny-sweet and tannic-dry, not fresh and poised. Deeply serious wine nonetheless; indeed, it is the most monumental in dimension of any of the wines tasted, on either the Right Bank or Left. I would enjoy drinking it for its tannins, and it insists on time; maybe there will be a metamorphosis ahead. How you feel about it is a question of aesthetics. Difficult to score, thus. 2018–32. | 89

Michael Schuster | Sweetly ripe and oak-tinged to smell; rich and ample and vital and tannic, a powerful constitution! Deep and sweetly ripe in flavor, clearly long and complex and with excellent length, too, but with the underlying finesse and subtlety somewhat masked by the textural dryness and astringency. A forceful expression of St-Emilion. The quality is clear; the expression, perhaps excessive. Needs a decade and more to mellow. 2030–45+. | 93