89 pts - Wine Advocate
["Fully mature, with a big, fragrant bouquet of damp earth, weedy underbrush, asphalt, Asian soy, and ripe plums and cherries, this medium-bodied 1996 appears to be on a fast evolutionary track. It reveals plenty of delicious fruit, soft tannins and enoug
89 pts - Wine Spectator
["A gentle, friendly wine for the vintage. Aromas of berries, tobacco and earth. Medium- to full-bodied, round, with soft tannins and a fruity aftertaste. Best after 2000. –JS WS"]
91 pts - Vinous
["Full ruby-red. Very reticent aromas of plum, black cherry, leather, dark chocolate and flowers; faint suggestion of surmaturite. Fat with sweet fruit; lush and voluminous for the vintage. Finishes with big but very even tannins that spread out on the pa