Simon Field | Big, broad, and expansive; color, texture, first and second impression. Pepper, bilberry, and hints of charcuterie, a little diffuse maybe, but still alert and full of enthusiasm. The palate, as anticipated, is broad, generous, and harmoniously rendered, the ripe, chalky tannins that seem to typify this sometimes underrated vintage clearly evidenced. A paradoxical impression of levity and weight meshed withatexture that provides both immediate satisfaction and a chronicle of success foretold. Perfectly at home in the grandest salons, of St James’s and elsewhere, yet with an approachability that defies an impulse for early consumption! | 91

Andrew Jefford | Dark, deep black-red in color and still opaque at the core. Brooding and somber, with ample youthful scarlet still left in the wine, even when the blackness leaves it. The scarlet runs right to the rim. Not quite as saturated as [Dow’s 1995], but not far off. Aromatically, I am picking up a little cork here, but it’s not spoiled the wine, and you can still clearly see the sweet, plush plum and damson fruits—a slightly sweeter fruit repertoire than for [Dow’s 1995]. The fruit is more prominent than in [Dow’s 1995], too. There is, though, also some tea-leaf complexity and a sense of fresh herb leaves from up in the hills; later, too, some damask rose. Another superb aromatic profile, and hugely promising. On the palate, this wine is deep, weighty, earthy. It is toward the riper end of the fruit spectrum— more bramble and caramel and less fresh plum, let alone blackcurrant—but it’s very good in that style, and the palate is backed up by exemplary quantities of extract and soft tannins. A lovely, serious, amply contoured heavyweight, in other words: everything you need to keep the winters of Colorado or Nova Scotia at bay. Magnificent stuff. | 95

Richard Mayson | Good, deep, dark center, withathin tawny rim; lovely, ripe plummy aromas, open but still brooding, seemingly with more to reveal; fleshy and ripe on the palate, with ripe plum and cherry fruit backed by firm, ripe tannins which lead to a powerful finish, with the fruit and tannin jostling for position. Only just ready, and with a long life ahead. All there and very impressive. | 96