93 Wine Spectator
Very ripe, with an almost raisiny edge. Light vanilla flavor. Full-bodied, with lots of ripe fruit and a long, caressing, silky finish. Gorgeous wine. A couple more years will make it just right.--'95/'96 Bordeaux retrospective. Best after 2008. 8,300 cases made. ?JS
90 Robert Parker
This wine was consistently outstanding from cask, and I suspect it may eventually merit an even higher score, but it was totally closed when I saw it in November. Unfortunately, it was one of the few wines that I was only able to taste once after bottling. Nevertheless, it is a classic vin de garde, with a saturated ruby/purple color, and a tight but promising nose of sweet plum and cassis fruit intertwined with underbrush, vanillin, and licorice scents. The wine is ripe, medium to full-bodied, and rich, as well as unyielding, ferociously tannic, pure, and layered. The finish is extremely dry (sec, as the French would say), with a brooding angularity and toughness. In spite of this, my instincts suggest the requisite depth is present to balance out the structure. This effort will also require a decade of cellaring.