Essi Avellan: Deep golden. Full, rich, seductively toasty-coffeed, sweet fruity nose. Voluptuous, sweet, lingering palate, with a high but spot-on dosage. Concentrated, evolved, and drinking perfectly. 19

Simon Field: Generous color, gold-plated, then an indulgent autolytic nose, very much le goût anglais, with digestive biscuit, honey, praline, and a hint of mocha. Perfectly à point now—rich, unabashedly oaky, and very long. 16.5

Tom Stevenson: First bottle: wild garlic! Second bottle not there. Garlic is a mercaptan problem, but I have never found the softer, more gentle wild garlic before. On comparison, initially I thought this phenomenon (not problem) had more to do with oak than mercaptans and that it is a microoxygenation difference between the porosity of one cork and the other, with the increased microoxygenation highlighting this oak-derived aroma. But the lovely, silky mousse, particularly in the second bottle, points to a very slight mercaptan issue highlighted by microoxygenation differences. Anyway, both bottles are delicious, with a beautifully understated use of oak. 18.5