Stephen Brook: Opaque red. Dense, black cherry nose, with a lot of sweet new oak. Very rich, juicy, and opulent, with weighty tannins behind the fruit. Highly concentrated and mouth-filling, but there is surprisingly good acidity on the aftertaste. Perhaps a touch stolid, but there’s no denying the intensity and depth of fruit. 17.5

Stephen Browett: Deep color, big, thick and jammy. Very much in the manufactured “garage wine” style, this has gobs of black, chewy fruit and is intense and sweet. Certainly not one for purists, but not actually as extracted and false as some wines on show today. 14.4

Michael Schuster: Very dark red; dense, ripe, minerally nose with a fine, new oak vanilla and cedar; rich, concentrated, firmly, but finely tannic wine; plenty of fine, ripe fruit here, but the new wood import does take over and dry the texture, harden the finish, and detract from the overall harmony. Tannin dryness also makes the finish more abrupt. I fear the tannins will always be there, somewhat marring what is otherwise very nice fruit. 15.5