Andrew Jefford | Impressively dark black-red; almost opaque here. Very fine aromatics for a second wine in this vintage: complete, harmonious and teasing, with lots of fresh, pressed black fruits: blackcurrant, damson, with pencil shavings and Cologne spices. Fine stitching and aromatic craftsmanship evident. Not in great volume and no aromatic roar, but deftly done and so pleasing. You’ll find everything that the nose promised here, woven into a fresh, tenor palate in which acidity has the upper hand over wealth, tannin, weight, and density, confirming the “cool” style of 2017. We can, though, speak of these things in this wine; it’s not smooth, as some of its Margaux second-wine peers are. Remarkable complexity for a second wine; remarkable, too, to find so much harmony in a four-year-old wine. I wouldn’t keep it more than a decade, but you get real class and complexity in this bottle. | 91

Michael Schuster | Dense and complex to smell; a quite rich, lively mid-weight with a firm, defining tannin; a bit austere in texture for the moment, mainly from its particularly lively acidity, but with a very nice fruit core, real subtlety, and scope for a second wine, plus an excellent length of flavor and aftertaste. Pleasure in the glass already, but I’d wait for a real bouquet and an easing in texture. 2025–35+. | 91