Andrew Jefford | Saturatedly deep black-red in color. Bottle 1: corked. Bottle 2: Rich, languid plums and black cherries, delicately sweetened with oak. The palate, in contrast to many wines this year, seems almost sweeter still than the aromas, thanks to this wine’s extraordinary concentration of fruit; yields must presumably have been pared to the bone here. Acids are high (this is one of the highest properties in the appellation), and tannins are massy. It’s probably “as oaky” as Valandraud and more oaky than La Mondotte, but the concentration and density of the Troplong Mondot fruit makes all the difference, and it seems to carry its oak much more successfully than those other wines do. A very impressive, deep, resonant and reverberative wine that certainly merits a decade’s storage or more—but it is just a little bit strenuous. | 92

Michael Schuster | A dense, heady presence to smell; powerful, full-bodied, a firmly tannic long-term prospect; sweetly ripe in fruit, long, tenacious, close-knit flavor behind the tannic frame, complex and mouth-coating, but the power always present, and with a fine, warm, fruit persistence. A potent red Bordeaux, very good wine, but a powerful style, which you have to like. And it will need much time to mellow. 2030–45+. | 94