Andrew Jefford | Dark, deep purple-black-red. Just off opaque, but the purple hues are unusual this year and bode well. Very beguiling: pure, lifted, floral, and fragrant, with toothsome delicacy of plum-cherry fruit, floating and veil-like over the wine. There is, though, something a little more savory and meaty, too, to suggest belly as well as cheekbone. Well above second-wine expectations—though this wine comes from a small, separate set of vines rather than being a classic second-wine selection. Wow! Out of the blue: a truly super mouthful that you would hardly guess hailed from 2017, so ample are its cashmere tannins, so ripe is its singing plum fruit, so deep are its stony-savory flavor essences once the fruit has settled. It tastes like an enduring classic, somehow out of time, vintage-defying. What the vintage has brought that other vintages wouldn’t, I guess, is a sparkle and sheerness of line, an almost hidden (veiled, if you like) acid energy. This is a wonderful mouthful. Given the price differential with Lafleur, this is a weird kind of decadent bargain (for those who have lucked out in life). Unquestionably one of the vintage’s best wines in its own right. | 95