Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: A great wine, utterly true to its terroir, with astonishing density and a slightly mineral edge that seems to pinpoint the taut energy of this year’s Cabernet Sauvignons. The tannins are firm and fresh, in the spirit of 1996 but more meticulously extracted. 19

Margaret Rand: A hugely impressive slab of a wine, assertive and swaggering. There are complex fruit flavours, roasted and rich, and subtlety on the finish. 19.5

Michael Schuster: Dense, polished, blackberry-and-cassis nose with a very refined minerality. A concentrated, fresh, full-bodied wine with a particularly refined tannic texture, superbly balanced. A rich, pure and very ripe gravelly Cabernet flavour, long and velvety across the palate, effortlessly sonorous and complex, with a wonderfully long cassis and gravel-scented finish. Contained grandeur. A great, understated Latour. Along with Margaux, one of the wines of the vintage. 19