Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: This barrel sample was a bit tired, not really right, but others show the true substance of the wine, with splendid notes of cedar and a majestic texture. It needs a few more months for the power of the wine to become more integrated. 17.5 or more

Michael Schuster: Dense, crisp, minerally, ripe red- and blackcurrant fruit on the nose, complex and aromatic; rich, compact wine, firm in tannin, firm in acidity, around a juicily ripe, red- and blackcurrant fruit; a pure, taut, firmer style within the vintage; long and juicy and subtle within the Pauillac muscle, but without coarseness, and with fine aromatic and fruit length. Here, again, that fine, concentrated fruit core of the best 2009s. A fine, fairly long-term Lynch-Bages. 2022–40. 17/17.5