Alison Buchanan: Deep green-tinged mahogany, the nose here is decidedly Port-like, dark dried fruit, pepper-spiced, and refreshed by zest and minerals. The palate is surprisingly lithe, balancing fresh and dried fruit with spicy aromatics, dried flowers, and citrus peel. It is something of a joy to discover that such wines exist—allied to the hope of never being shown one blind. This is sumptuous and fresh, long, and profound—extraordinary really. | 90

Andrew Jefford: Somewhere between walnut and ebony, with relatively light viscosity. Very harmonious, refined, and complex: a distillate of age giving lift to the sweet raisins, figs, and spices; a creamy sheen, too. No fruits left to speak of; somewhere between sensual and ethereal in style. Very enticing. Dense, deep, long, weighty, and searching on the palate, and truly exciting in that, once on the palate, you discover that this is in fact a very old wine that has managed to retain all of the orange perfume of the slightly less ancient wines in it, tethering those to the darkness and the glow and the weight of age— and all its attendant richnesses. The orange has survived! It’s creamy and lush in texture to begin with, then expands and grows more challenging and coruscating as it opens in the mouth. Treacle, tar, and burned raisins inform the finish, yet you still can’t quite forget the fragrant orange, either. Sensationally exciting, once-in-a-lifetime wine. | 97

Margaret Rand: Lush, savory, gamey, lots of fruit still; remarkably frivolous, as well as intensely concentrated. Extraordinary wine—the concentrated essence of everything wine should be. It is sweet, but it’s also savory and herbal and tightly packed. It’s difficult to unpick the different layers. Wonderful. | 97