Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Beautifully oaked with a strong body and firm, thoroughbred, honestly built and honestly behaved tannins. A very classical and promising wine – slightly more developed than the others at this stage and likely to be even more so in a year’s time. 17

Margaret Rand: This is peppery and spicy, with plenty of tannin, but seems a bit thin. The finish is good, so perhaps it’s just going through an ungenerous adolescent moment. 16

Michael Schuster: Dense nose, with slightly high-char oak on ripe fruit. Rich, ample, generous, well-proportioned wine, with a fine, if quite dry, tannin. Powerful, spicy, ripe Cabernet fruit, long across the palate, sapid, minerally, well sustained and long in the mouth and on the finish. Tannins suggest fairly long term, but very good – very Pauillac. 16.5/17