Alex Hunt: Closed on the nose, with a bit of red fruit and mineral. The palate is much livelier, really quite spicy but not in a typical black-pepper way—more Victorian sweets, or slightly camphory. Still, it’s a bit small-scale and simple. At 13%, this is a loweralcohol style, but I’m not sure it has yet worked out how to retain intensity and depth at this more moderate level of ripeness. 85

Andrew Jefford: Saturated deep red-black. Sweet and warm, but rather soft-focus and undifferentiated. Mellow, soft, chewy; lots of texture and depth, but the core of fruit hasn’t, for whatever reason, quite made it to the party; so you have all that shell to bite your way through, and then there isn’t the centralpalate glow to reward you when you get there. But this is still very good wine that I’d be happy to drink, and it doesn’t have the green tones that spoil the appeal of its less ripe peers. 88

Peter Liem: This is restrained and reticent, showing a bold ripeness and a dark, juicy fruitiness while remaining wrapped up in its structure. It’s quiet and tense, needing plenty of air to bring out the flavors on the palate. 89