Alex Hunt: A semi-modern style, fresh with pineneedle notes, but displaying clean, ripe berry fruit alongside. The palate is dominated by oak, however. The tannin contribution of the wood unsettles the balance, and it leaves a rather dry impression- 12

Andrew Jefford: Saturated purple-black. Aromatically, this is serious and ambitious: rich, resourceful, both red and black fruits, spice-decked, dark, incense-laden, earthy. Oak is a part of this, but so too is low-yielding, perhaps old-vine fruit from well-tended vineyards in a propitious and mineralogically interesting site. Aromatically fine within the high-latitude, teased-ripeness frame. Rich, full, earthy, closetextured, this is the outstanding wine in a relatively unshowy subregional set. Grippy, earthy, mineral, lingering, and provocative— and beautifully handled, with finely judged levels of extract. I still feel that this subregional location seems to be one of the cooler and less mineral ones, but everything has been done here to give the site its voice, and this is a delicious, as well as a complex, wine, with a Cossack-like pace to it- 16.5

Simon Larkin: Deep, certainly opaque. The nose is restrained, offering dark red-berry fruit and a note of toast. The palate is ripe, rounder than anticipated, with that sweetening effect of new oak. Almost leaves you with a cherryadelike character. It seems simple; straightforward with little by means of complexity. The tannins are sleek, well expressed, and lead to a finish that is slightly abrupt. A correct example but with an ungainly edge- 12.5