Alison Buchanan: Prune-juice-like in appearance, this is highly perfumed, floral, with only the vaguest hints of dried fruit. The palate is much more vinous, still floral but with Eccles-cake notes and warm fruitcake, vibrantly spiced. The finish presents dried fruit and citrus layered with dark chocolate—rather decadent really. | 89

Andrew Jefford: Dense, deep, dark walnut, with middling viscosity for the über-grandees. Earthy and forest-like aromas, complex and enticing, almost fresh and sprightly, with very little treacly fullness left after all these years. Fragrant, refined, unlit cigar leaf in the cedar cabinet: very refined and enticing. Hugely deep and searching on the palate, and with pronounced acidity, but that acidity carries all the weight of the perfumed fruits on its back; intense, long, lingering, tobaccoey, and fine. Not the ultimate weight, but magnificent disposition of perfumes, lively and long. A peacock. | 95

Margaret Rand: Bitter, acidic, almost too searing to be enjoyable. A relic rather than a wine for drinking—but a relic of great distinction and elegance. | 90