Simon Field | Modest, light gold color, restrained nose, hints of petrichor and white pepper. The palate engages with its exotic understatement; full of southwestern promise, but then holding back in a coquettish fashion. | 88

Andrew Jefford | Bright gold. Rather a dry nose for a sweet wine. Almost meaty—but sugar and barley sugar beneath; pressed leaves, too. The wine clears with air to reveal pain d’épices with a little fine whipped crème anglaise richness: hugely enticing. White mushroom, too. Sweet, intense, with a bright acidity, which many of its Sauternes peers don’t have. There’s a briskness and a lemony freshness that many may like, and the slightly disconcerting aromas are not duplicated on the palate, which is clean, fresh, and frank. This doesn’t have the layered depth and lusciousness of the best of its Sauternes second-wine peers... but it is Barsac, after all, and in its place you’ll find something as deliciously crisp as a brandy snap biscuit, lent complexity by gingery spice and with a subtle, white-mushroom richness in place of the luscious lanolin ooze of the Sauternais. | 91