Stephen Brook: Apple-and-apricot nose but still rather subdued. Not especially rich on the palate, which is quite graceful and lively. This has balance and a welcome perkiness, and enough extract to give a tangy aftertaste. This wine doesn’t seem in quite the same category as most of the others, since it shows a lightness of touch. Only moderate persistence, though, and perhaps not for long aging. 15.5

Alison Buchanan: Rich golden in color. Rather restrained, toasted nose, stone-fruit notes, and vanilla cream. The palate is expansive and generous, succulent and ripe, a combination of quince, apricot, and peach laced with vanillin and punctuated by minerals. A big wine, certainly, but one that dances rather well, with sufficient definition, focus, and freshness to challenge some Rhône counterparts. Decent, rounded, long finish but just not enough electricity to warrant a higher score 15

Anthony Rose: Pale in color, this displays an almost white Châteauneuf-ish baked-apple-andsourdough character on the nose; it’s distinctively baked appley on the palate, too, with well-crafted underlying oak spice and good balancing freshness; an attractive Rhônish style, with some lees and solids adding to the overall complexity. Excellent food wine for white meats 17