Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: A complete, highly successful wine with a richly varied character. The smoky whiff is to be expected in a wine of this calibre, but the velvety tannins are really quite exceptional. Winemaking at its best, using well-matched varieties that are ideally compatible in terms of ripeness. 18

Margaret Rand: Sweet, ripe fruit with lots of spice and pronounced tannins. Warm and attractive. 16

Michael Schuster: Intense cassis and redcurrant fruit on the nose. Rich, medium- to full-bodied wine with a firm fruit and oak tannin and fresh acidity; full of ripe, gravelly fruit on the palate, complex, aromatic and long – all within this year’s slightly austere Graves style – and with excellent scented fruit length. Up among the top Graves, as usual, but the 100% new oak does impinge on flavour and texture, and I wonder just how long it will take to mature… (Even La Mission uses only 75% new wood.) 16/16.5