Alison Buchanan: Deep mahogany withatawny rim, this combines dried fruit, hot fruitcake, and treacle toffee on the nose. The palate reflects the aromatics on the nose, setting them within a silken, sumptuous frame. There is citrus lift throughout, however, and an upbeat energy that confounds the overt opulence and intensity, ultimately giving an unexpected sense of ease and vitality—extraordinary. | 94

Andrew Jefford: Opaque black, with some green glints; catwalk leggy. Moist, earthy scents, with a little less primary varietal character than many of its peers. Broodingly treacly, however. Earthy, piney, and quietly suggestive; you get the feeling that much more may emerge if you can only give this wine the time in glass it seems to crave. Unctuous, deep, forceful, and resonant on the palate, with magnificent aromatic power, too: just the complete fortified Muscat. Despite its blackness, this is a kind of lighthouse of a wine, sweeping your tongue with successive waves of sweetness, layered with orange, mint, pine, and raisin perfumes; that sweetness is creamy, succulent, sumptuous; sensationally alluring. Finally (though 30 seconds or more afterward), there is a little burned-raisin bitterness to begin cleaning it all up. Very, very grand. | 97

Margaret Rand: Toast and citrus; burned figs; sleek, bitter oranges. Poised, concentrated, high acidity, lots of freshness. Lush, opulent texture contrasts with searing pungency of flavor, in a very good way. Very grown-up wine, sweet but certainly not sugary; more like bitter, savory Seville orange marmalade. | 94