David Harvey | Golden and hazy. Should have been a Jimi Hendrix song. Peppery, punchy, dramatic nose, with ripe orange and mango, spice notes. Reminiscent of a head-turning cloud of citrus and musk perfume. Fragrant and yet dry palate— another yin-yang wine. Pithy, tannic, slightly gassy, showing fluid and solid properties. Generous now and yet capable of aging. Long, tannic, grippy. Compelling. What it is not, is white wine; what it is, is a serious drink indeed. Smoothes out post-aeration, so I would decant it prior to drinking. Keep up to 5 years. | 17.5

Andrew Jefford | Deep gold, and deeply murky. You would think twice before drinking this under normal circumstances, using standard wine-drinking visual cues. It smells funky and wild, but quite interesting—lemony, pears, yeasty, and softly spicy, like wheat beer. You could also see a floral note here, and something reminding me of tangerine-peel; a touch of cloves, too. Complex, long, and aromatically intriguing, and I love the tannins here, which lend the wine a substance and a richness that normal whites just don’t have. The flavors are a kind of blend of yellow summer fruits, seed spices, like aniseed and fennel, a touch of light coffee, yeasty-mushroomy-umami notes, and some crab-apple tannins. Overall, the balance is soft and the wine is comforting and nourishing. A challenging, affronting wine, but excellent and something I would love to drink with food. | 17

Isabelle Lageron | Overt, opulent, happy wine. Some aromatic notes shining through, almost Muscat-like, with apricot and cream on the nose. On the palate, the sense of southern grapes. No oak, just pure texture and spice from the fruit. Peach with a dash of licorice and wild thyme. Briny. Round, creamy texture. Nice complexity and a wine of tremendous immediate gratification and adult fun. Beautiful now, but will no doubt evolve and keep for a few more years. | 16.5

Francis Percival | Progressing toward orangeness, if that is a concept. Spiky in the mouth, with both CO2 and firm astringency. Not very charming, but most certainly convinced of what it has to say; plenty of concentration but not a lot of freshness. | 10

David Williams | Macerated, yellow-orange in color, a touch of tannin, which gives the wine food-matching dynamism. The interplay with the clear-cut acidity, the nuttiness, the pear fruit and the wild herb is attractive. Long, intense, chalky, mineral finish, with just a suggestion of cider. I guess you would spot this as “natural”—you’re aware of the winemaking choices—but there’s flair and idiosyncratic character. | 15.5

Doug Wregg | Turbid cider-colored wine. Smells primarily of the apple press and fermenting mulch, something in the background—fennel, balsam? Almost astringent in the mouth, with gum-drying tannins and some dried herbs and spices on the finish, but can’t feel the fruit. | 13.5