Stephen Brook: Opaque red. Porty nose, blackberry jam. Rounded, very soft, clearly overripe and lacking in structure and freshness. Could have been an acceptable early-drinking style were it not for the ferocious tannins, which suggest too much extraction. Medium length and blunt, with a rather dry finish. 14

Michael Schuster: Very dark red; mainly cedary new oak on the nose; elegant, relatively delicate ripe fruit marked by a strong new oak astringency; sweet, ripe fruit of moderate complexity, quite refined, but a strong, dry oak tannin texture distracts from the finesse of the terroir’s fruit. Good length, but overall marred by excess tannin. 15