Andrew Jefford | Dark black-red in color, still just opaque at the core. Deep, stern, full, and resolutely plummy, though there is something a little sappy, gluey, or malty there, too—a possibly crass way of expressing Trotanoy’s sticky-clay character. This wine needs aging to find its aromatic mojo (Trotanoy is often thus), so judgment reserved here to some extent. Very deeply fruited, close-textured, brooding, dark, and rewarding, since there is no trace of unripeness or herbaceousness in here. Dark, almost chocolate-dark, almost smouldering, earthy, humus-laden—if you are interested in comparing Pomerol fruit characters, put this alongside the Vieux Château Certan and note VCC’s much brighter, more pungent and athletic fruit (surely a soil signature of some sort in here). Unflamboyant but very satisfying, very rewarding, particularly in the long term, and once again there is no sense of a second-class vintage here. Fine dropping tannins, too, with sensational lingering flavors. A wonderful 2017 to hold in the mouth, and hold, and hold... Once the aromatics settle, a higher score still is surely possible. | 95

Michael Schuster | Closed and minerally to smell; full, firm, and tannic on the palate, a characteristically youthful, muscular Trotanoy constitution. A mass of clinging, sappy-ripe flavor within a satisfyingly sinewy structure; long-term abundance and promise, but for the moment a taste tenacity consisting more of power than of pleasure, requiring decades of patience to unfurl. But Trotanoy’s early, rather forbidding “clayey” sinews win out in the long term, revealing a gloriously harmonious vinosity... but you do need to wait. 2035–45+. | 93