Nicolas Belfrage: Unusually deep colour, not opaque. Plenty of aromatics on the nose - violets, herbs, ripe red fruits. Rich ripe fruit on the palate too, round and balanced, with tannins sweet and acidity correct. Big, alcoholic but not excessively so. Drinking now but should reward several years of keeping. Interesting that this producer’s 1996 is better than his 1997 - one would have thought the reverse of a modernist, which this producer presumably is. This has refinement and culture, which the 1997s, especially the [Vigna Enrico VI], lack. 17.5

Simon Larkin : Deep, almost opaque, this offers aromas of beef stock and leather despite its apparent youth. The palate reveals similar complexity with dusky, earthy dark fruit of good depth, with a mineral quality underlying it. Currently not quite knitting, with a marked acidity making for a slightly streaky finish. There is, however, Qadepth to the fruit, and a good tannic frame, so to revisit in four or five years should prove rewarding, though the potential is there for development far beyond this. 16.5