Alison Buchanan: Deep plum in colour, this reveals very dark, inky, serious fruit on the nose – earthy but rich in intense black fruit, pepper-spiced. The palate is very muscular, intense and dry. There is firmly extracted fruit here, resulting in considerable power, but sadly it loses out on the charm front. Monolithic; this takes no prisoners. 16

Jancis Robinson: Dark purple. Bright, extracted fruit but rather muted in terms of intensity. Good, well-structured balance of fruit and tannins, still rather hard but with the potential to develop into something excellent. Good length with a very austere finish. 17

Jeremy Watson: Almost black. Another big extract wine with cherries on the nose and in the mouth that are attractive. Good structure. 16.5