Alex Hunt: Striking, inky purple color. Dense, modern nose: very clean, ripe fruit, slightly jammy, with an apple-skin/aldehyde character suggesting microoxygenation. On the palate, this apple-skin note is heightened to the detriment of the wine’s innate fruit and interest. The tannin isn’t even that supple despite the attempts to manage it. The result is a medium-bodied bruiser- 12

Andrew Jefford: Saturated black-purple. At the end of a largely disappointing subregional group, suddenly there is a wine of aromatic complexity, with fresh black fruit, intriguing floral overtones, and overall aromatic charm. Some might find it slightly dangerous, feral, and boundary-pushing. Dense, full, deep, rich, textured, and long. This doesn’t have the same deep warmth and minerality that I noted in subregional group 2, but it has an intriguing aromatic profile that persists a long way into the palate; it has freshness and vivacity; and the extraction levels have been well judged, giving the wine textural depth. I like it to taste, and I’d enjoy drinking it. My hesitation is the faintly lactic, yogurty quality to its acid profile. But this is an exciting and ambitious Loire red and a fine Cabernet Franc- 16

Simon Larkin: Inky and opaque in the glass; the nose possesses that unfinished, tank-sample character. Freshly crushed dark fruit—utterly unevolved. There is even a touch of ethyl acetate here, unfortunately. Acidic and unpleasant, with the ethyl acetate character carried forward. This has a fault, surely? Second bottle marginally better- 7