Andrew Jefford | Dark, saturated black-red, and far from losing opacity as yet. Wonderful blackcurrant sherbet and incense spice—which sounds Kublai-Khan exotic, and yet this wine is very classical, too, refined and fresh despite its relative richness. Warmth and sap of marc and the autumn harvest. A super nose. Deep, dense, resonant, and exciting: a fruit bell, tolling. Stunning depth and intensity of fruit here, almost shocking, backed by discreet tannins. There are few other complexities or allusions on the palate as yet, so masterful is that fruit, but I guess they will come; you don’t have to hurry over-much with this. It is still 2017 fruit, but 2017 from gravels and not clays, so it’s got beyond the rebarbative leanness one can trip and stumble over in St-Estèphe. | 93

Michael Schuster | A come-hither red-and-black-fruit-ripe nose; medium-full, crisply defined, finely tannic, overall a touch firm. A ripe fruit flavor, with its length and juiciness reined in by its acidity currently, but with good length, and which will come round, as so often, given time, at which point it will provide plenty of taut, mid-rank St- Julien pleasure. 2025–35+. | 88