Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Not, at this stage, quite so spectacularly precocious as the 2003 but magnificently balanced and built, withataste to die for and superb length. Ultra-civilised tannins. 17.5

Margaret Rand: This taster found that the tannins overpowered the very pretty fruit. Nobody seems to agree, so it must just have been a bad moment – for the taster, not the wine. 16

Michael Schuster: Still dumb to smell. Rich, middleweight Pauillac with a particularly fine tannin. Long, sweet, savoury, fleshy and seductive flavour. Gently minerally under the ripe fruit, long and close-knit and with excellent persistence. Typical Comtesse ‘femininity’ for Pauillac, but also clear second-growth finesse and class. A lovely 2004. 17