Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Excellent fruit; long, elegant tannins; great balance; wonderful finesse. This year’s samples have been quite variable. 18

John Gilman: The 2010 Pichon Lalande is another unequivocal success for the vintage. The classy bouquet is deep, ripe, and impressively pure, with a classically reserved blend of cassis, dark berries, espresso, tobacco leaf, gravel, and discreet new oak wafting from the glass. On the palate, the wine is deep, full-bodied, and quite suave on the attack, with a fine core of fruit, ripe well-integrated tannins, good acidity, and impressive focus on the long, youthful, and beautifully balanced finish. A very fine young Pichon Lalande that strongly recalls the young 1986. 2020–70. 18.5

Michael Schuster: Black-red; dense, minerally nose, abundant in Cabernet fruit; rich, generous, fleshy wine; a lovely feminine balance. Sweetly ripe, complex and energetic; lively, juicy, very finely tannic; long and subtle to taste; spicy, sweet, and penetrating, with great aromatic range and a splendidly Pauillac-spicy aromatic aftertaste. Class, super-fine tannins, fleshy, feminine, and generous. A complete, fine expression of the year and of the property. Not massive but very impressive. 2020–40+. 17.5/18+