Simon Field | Imperious uncompromising color, onyx; the wine-dark sea, in this spirited and uplifting; the nose meshes bay leaf, wild strawberry, fig, and verbena; smoke, late flowers, and hilltop scrub. Aristocratic in bearing, yet still youthful; composed and sleek; Jaguar-like (the animal not the vehicle), biding its time; dark fruit and ripe, slightly chalky tannins. Something of a Left Bank claret from the upper echelon here; very complete and refined, yet with so much more to give. A little like your correspondent, way back when he was a mere 35 years of age, in heady anticipation of the panorama at the top of the ascent. | 92

Andrew Jefford | Now this looks very serious indeed: clearly the deepest, darkest, and densest wine, visually speaking, of our 1985 cohort, and comparing admirably with the best 1980s and ’82s. It’s a saturatedly dark, midnight-black effort, only dislimning very reluctantly toward deep, dark scarlet at the rim. As handsome as they come! Very promising aromatically, too: lots of fresh fruit, but without the slightly berryish simplicities that were evident to different degrees in the 1980s and the 1982s. This is blackcurrant and dark, fresh plum; there’s a tea-leaf finesse; you can almost smell the graphite aromas of fine, dense tannins. A hugely impressive effort. Now let’s taste! It doesn’t disappoint: tightly gathered, deep, and driving, with huge power, concentration, force, and focus. Very impressive, and the fruits very driving. The fruits are also very youthful and primary (in contrast to what I felt about the aromas), a feature of all of the deepest wines since 1980—a side effect, perhaps, of new vinification techniques? Should they still be this primary after 35 years? Probably a discussion for another day, but I do wonder if we aren’t losing touch with vinosity, purity, and aromatic finesse in the quest for sublime extraction. Whatever the truth of the matter, this is a deep and resonantly fruity wine in beautifully preserved form, packed with fresh fruits—almost bright and crystalline. A super effort and many years to go yet. | 95

Richard Mayson | Very deep, opaque black center, even after 35 years, withathin purple rim, remarkably youthful; dense, a touch of spirit and seemingly a bit soupy and extractive on the nose, though with underlying ripeness; ripe and broad on the palate, supported by a firm, ripe, tannic superstructure that leads to a dense, tannic finish, which rather kills the fruit. Brutalist. If this wine were a building, it would be the Hayward Gallery. | 87