John Gilman: I tasted two samples and found them both clearly smelling of varnish. Since one of the tastings where this was shown was hosted by the estate, I have to assume this really is the wine. For the first time, the estate actually conducted part of the alcoholic fermentation in new barrels (100 percent of the malo is already conducted in barrels), so perhaps this is the reason for the varnish smell in the wine. The nose offers up scents (underneath the varnish) of plums, black cherries, damp soil, and plenty of new oak. On the palate, the wine is deep, full-bodied, and foursquare, with a flat-palate impression, very hard tannins, and a dull, low-acid finish. Hard to imagine this ever being good to drink. 8/9.5?

Michael Schuster: Sweetly ripe with just a suggestion of spirit and a fine oak; very nicely balanced; concentrated, vigorous, elegant; firmly, oak-drily tannic; black-fruit sweet, quite complex, intense, and fresh in flavor. A little hot and dry on the finish but with excellent, fruit-fragrant length. Very good, even if that oak dryness is not my style. 2022–35. 16.5/17+