Andrew Jefford: Very dark in color, and still a sustained black-red though translucent. Rich and brocaded aromas: lush and exotic black raspberry, with ample sweet wealth. Seductive, and once again an astonishing contrast to the range of aromatic expressions we found in Sancerre. Very seductive tarry, velvet- curtain ripeness here. Very concentrated and voluptuous on the palate, too: astonishing ripeness, depth, warmth, velvet and raspberry-bramble fruit, swirled with anis, with ample cashmere tannins. Dense, full, voluptuous, yet poised and fine withal. A Pinot without any austerity whatsoever. Classicists may baulk at this, but I think it is an outstanding effort and hugely enjoyable to drink. It redefines France’s Pinot parameters. | 94

Jasper Morris: fine, bright, and quite full color. The bouquet is very promising, with an engaging ripeness of fruit without any attempt to push extraction too far. The dark raspberry notes swarm all over the palate and continue through to a long, spicy finish on the dark fruit, withatouch of licorice. There is a certain amount of oak presence at the back of the palate, with which the fruit can cope. This is relatively speaking a heavyweight and will require food. | 89

Catherine Petrie: Medium ruby with a deep core. There is a lifted concentration of ripe cherry and damson fruit on the nose. There is plenty of ripe acidity on the palate to keep the generous fruit in balance. The tannins are well-integrated with the structure of the wine, but the wine falls down a bit on the finish, which seems short at the moment. With a little time in bottle perhaps this will change. | 87