Wine Spectator: This is really gorgeous, with a flamboyant display of spice, warm linzer torte, blueberry and plum confiture aromas giving way to fleshy dark fruit and anise notes. Never over...

Wine Spectator: Showing good fruit, nice concentration and a firm tannic structure, this has personality, grip and character. Medium- to full-bodied, it has great length but not much elegance...

Wine Spectator: Stunning and pure from the get-go, with intense cassis and blackberry fruit. Ultimately takes a slightly austere approach, with a wrought-iron structure driving along while pa...

Wine Spectator: This is a step ahead of the pack, with concentration but gentle texture to the plum, cassis and linzer torte flavors, which are inlaid with black tea and singed fennel seed no...

Wine Spectator: Combines both silky texture and good tension, with a light chalky thread running through the middle of the almost plush plum and blackberry fruit. There's a bright cassis bush...

Wine Spectator: Solid notes of steeped black currant, ganache-coated fig and plum eau de vie pump along in this very dark red, but with well-integrated structure. Long and winey through the f...

Wine Spectator: Subtle, complex aromas of berries, licorice and currants. Full-bodied, with well-integrated tannins and a long finish. Very well-integrated wine. Lovely stuff. Wonderful lengt...

Wine Spectator: Very tight and compact, dense and focused, with vibrant blackberry, graphite and black cherry fruit that's intense, concentrated and persistent.--Non-blind Harlan retrospectiv...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Deep saturated red. Knockout tangy aromas of raspberry, wild cherry, exotic spices, flowers and blood orange. Huge, velvety and sweet but with superb mineral lift. This has at...

Wine Spectator: Starts out closed, but very intense and concentrated, with tight currant, spice, cedar, anise and blackberry flavors. Maintains a long, vibrant finish.--Non-blind Harlan retro...

Wine Spectator: A seamless, pretty '96 claret. Extremely fruity aromas of plums and blackberries. Medium-bodied, with polished tannins and silky texture...

Wine Spectator: This strides in with distinction, starting off with a showy but integrated layer of espresso-infused toast, followed by plush tiers of crushed currant, plum and blackberry fru...

Wine Enthusiast: Juicy black currant fruit mingles with bright acidity and dark-chocolate tannins. This often overlooked château, with the same production team as Lafite-Rothschild , has an...

Wine Spectator: Features substantial but very velvety structure running from start to finish, delivering a muscular feel for now. The hard edges are fully absorbed by the core of plum sauce, ...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: (70% mourvedre and 10% each of grenache, counoise and syrah, all raised in foudre): Glass-staining purple. Hypnotic bouquet of black and blue fruits, potpourri and exotic sp...

About this Wine: The unique encepagement and the twelve hectares of vines situated on the soils of St Julien endow the wines of Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande with an exception...

Wine Spectator: The nose is marked by caramel, plum and macerated fruits, with more bass than the 1996. On the palate the fruit has a slightly candied quality, but its very concentrated. A bi...

Wine Spectator: Shows high-toned cherry, tobacco leaf, grilled herb and lightly mulled spice notes. Very formed already, with a lingering dusty finish as the herb note peeks out more and more...

Wine Spectator: Offers a very solid, plump core of blackberry and crushed cherry notes, with sweet spice filling in on the finish, where a lightly singed wood edge shows through and should in...

Wine Spectator: This is dense but silky around the edges, with crushed plum and black currant fruit lined with roasted vanilla bean, tobacco and loam notes. Everything hangs solidly through t...