Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Firm, well-balanced and fleshy but curiously neutral and impersonal now. 16.5

Margaret Rand: Ripe tannins in a dense, muscular wine that is closed and inexpressive at the moment – but still impressive. 18.5

Michael Schuster: Ripe plum and blackberry fruit nose; richly elegant medium- to full-bodied wine with fresh acidity and fine tannin. Lovely concentration of ripe fruit, both juicy and sapid, as well as fresh and taut, with clear Graves gravel aromas, real complexity and excellent length. A particularly gratifying La Mission; not super-ripe or showy, but brimming with class. 17.5