Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Fleshy and velvety but lacking the superior energy and density of the Larcis-Ducasse or the Pavie-Macquin. Good ripe fruit but proportionately less aromatic personality than the 2001. 14

Margaret Rand: Burnt-coffee fruit, concentrated and good; perfumed, spicy, with good length. 17

Michael Schuster: Black purple. Dense, ripe and extracted to smell. Strong, rich, ripe, tannic new-wave St-Emilion style: sweet, oaky, slightly hot, with modest scope and medium length. Quite good of its type, but not to my personal taste, being a bit ‘thick’ for drinking pleasure! 14.5