Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Lighter colour than the other St-Juliens, with rather imprecise flavours and a somewhat tired finish. Scoring this wine was out of the question on the basis of a single sample, nor was there any opportunity to taste it elsewhere. NS

Margaret Rand: A perfumed, balanced wine – all coffee and cedar, ripe and classic. There’s a lovely long, perfumed finish, too. A wine of great seductiveness. 18

Michael Schuster: Mid-purple. Medium-full, moderately concentrated wine with a dry tannin. Pleasant enough ripe fruit, but a relatively fluid character for its status. Not bad, not special, barely enough fruit for the dry tannin. 14.5