Nicolas Belfrage: Deep, verging on opaque. Round, ripe cherry-berry fruit on nose. Full, rich palate but more impressive than elegant. Acidity a bit challenged. In the end, lacks excitement. But very correct. 14

Stephen Brook: Fairly deep red. Charming and lifted nose, with sour-cherry and vanilla aromas. Good attack, sleek texture, concentrated though not excessively so, lively and peppery. This has medium weight but is balanced and accessible. Indeed, it seems a bit forward, and the tannins are so discreet that one wonders whether it has the structure to go the distance. But certainly an appealing mid-term wine. 16.5

Andrew Jefford: Deep, clear red-black. A soft, stealthy aromatic profile in which you can pick out a little unusual mint and lavender amid the refined shadowland of red fruits. Subtle and aristocratic. Creamy vellum lifts from the glass later. After a while in the glass, it begins to look a little bit oaky, a little bit varnishy. This is a wine of beautiful shape and poise, based on a core of glowing, extract-contoured red fruits that have been burnished by the élevage process into an attractive suite of Havana-leaf and oak-forest complexities. At first tasting, it seems very unshowy but very good. The finesse of its components and the way they have been assembled suggest a longer life than mere assessment of weight and depth might do. Everything is right here. Of course it begs for food and doesn’t make much sense when sipped on its own, but that is true of almost every wine in the tasting. When tasted later, it seems a little more elemental, a little edgier, the oak a little intrusive, and the acidity less well bonded with the other components than I first thought. But this is still a very serious effort. 16