95 Wine Enthusiast

Decadent layers of blackberry and mulberry preserves are pierced by smoke and toast in this unctuous, glossy red. It's a warming, piquant sip marked by clove, cardamom and black pepper, but balanced freshly too. Tannins are fine and feathery. Oak tones are a bit flashy in youth but should meld beautifully through 2031. ANNA LEE C. IIJIMA

95 Josh Raynolds - Vinous Media

Deep brilliant violet. Intensely perfumed aromas of ripe cherry, blackberry, candied violet, spicecake, garrigue and exotic spices, along with a smoky mineral overtone that builds in the glass. Stains the palate with deeply concentrated red and dark berry liqueur, fruitcake, licorice pastille and lavender flavors that possess a compelling blend of richness and energy. The mineral note comes back strong on a strikingly long, penetrating finish shaped by velvety, steadily mounting tannins. This is the best example of this venerable domaine's work that I can recall drinking in its infancy, and it may measure up to their legendary 1959 and 1961 bottlings, which I first tried back in the late 1980s.