Stephen Browett: A dark color. Powerful black fruit and licorice nose with cigar box hints. Blackcurrant extract on the palate. There is real inky depth here. Powerful and layered, impressive and serious. This is great stuff, Long and lingering—close to first growth quality and one of the wines of the vintage. No way is this a second wine! 17.5

Michael Schuster: Dark red; dense, lightly roasted, spicy nose; concentrated middleweight with a very fine, relatively supple tannin but no lack of freshness, though obviously a warm vintage character, and a lot of warmth in the mouth; round, ripe, really juicy, and with lovely, warm, fruit-infused length. A delightful hot year character, but not “hot” as such. This 2003 is a delicious wine, even if it has “something of the south” to it! Now to 2018. (Tasted in March 2007). 16