Andrew Jefford | Deep, dark, dense black-purple, with some purple at the rim. Very brooding and serious with graphite and blackcurrant as well as the more usual plum, cream, and chocolate: hugely impressive aromatically. A cherry-kernel note, too. Very complex and refined: bravo. Close-textured, dramatic, and intensely fruited on the palate: the Delon stable seems to have understood what 2016 had to offer so well (or 2016 seems to have suited the Delon approach). This isn’t at all an oozy-woozy, lushly slushy Pomerol: it’s firm and upright, almost military, almost Eglise-Clinet-like, or rather even more Eglise-Clinet than Eglise- Clinet; a firm Médoc hand on splendid Pomerol Merlots. Great dramatic fruit intensity, though, as well as fine shaping tannins, and of course it is Merlot not Cabernet, so there is (or will be) a final tenderness there, too. Very impressive Nenin in this vintage. | 93

Michael Schuster | Sweet blackcurrant and blackberry nose; rich, fairly full, firm in tannin; sweet-cored, cassis- flavored, sappy, lightly chewy Pomerol; a touch oak-tannin-dry at present, moderately complex, and with good, light sweet length. Currently a bit sinewy, but with richer fare this would be perfectly satisfying. 2024–38+. | 89