Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Silky and velvety, the wine is broad, with unctuous fruit on the palate, meaty and very round. Lots of promise. 17

Michael Schuster: A nose of ripe cassis and oak cedar; a beautifully balanced, rich, fleshy middleweight, with a very fine tannin; a blackberry-jelly fruit core, subtly juicy, gently spicy, with a nice Cabernet complexity alongside the Merlot flesh; long and graceful, very Margaux in its delicacy and fineness, with a lovely, long, fragrant finish. Fine, long- term d’Issan. 2017–30. 16.5/17