Michael Schuster: Dense, complex nose - spicy, subtly oaky, prolonged; very rich, very dense and very sweet, but not hefty, if with a good rather than a vigorous acidity; deep, mouth-coating and intensely sweet - enormously long across the palate with wonderful fruit, noble rot’s spicy complexity and great definition. Splendid Rieussec. Surprisingly, seems less of a blockbuster and more elegantly cut than its 2001. 18.5

Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Monumental, with the largesse and depth that are very much the style of this cru. 18