Wine Spectator: A big, broad-shouldered style, with lots of bittersweet cocoa and coffee up front, followed by thick-textured blackberry and black currant fruit. Shows a bit more brute force ...

Wine Spectator: Breathtaking aromas of crushed blackberries, dark chocolate and cassis. Full-bodied, with big and velvety tannins and intense fruit. Long finish. Massive. But polished and ver...

Wine Spectator: Mouthfilling, with lots of fleshy crushed plum, blackberry and currant fruit pushed by dark tobacco and roasted vanilla notes. Muscular, but rounded and showing good integrati...

Wine Spectator: A very fine '96, but what else would you expect from Cheval-Blanc? Medium- to full-bodied, with a good deep-ruby color, this has aromas of freshly crushed blackberry, fine tan...

Wine Spectator: Juicy and direct, with a relatively friendly feel to the plum, blackberry and blueberry fruit, all coated with a ganache note that hangs through the finish. Surprisingly acces...

Wine Spectator: Dark in profile and rather stolid, with a beam of currant, plum and fig allied to a prominent iron shaft that clamps down on the charcoal-textured finish. Showing rather auste...

Wine Spectator: Sweet tobacco, blackberries and violets on the nose. Subtle. Full-bodied and very tight, with fantastic tannins and a long caressing finish. Wonderful texture. All in reserve ...

Wine Spectator: Packed with bright flavors, raspberry and red plum dominating, with great length and sweet tannins to suggest a long life. Harmonious and elegant beneath focused power.--Penfo...

Wine Spectator: This is beautiful on the nose with currants, berries and flowers. Full-bodied, with silky tannins and pretty fruit. Needs a bit more fruit on the midpalate to be a classic Mar...

About this Wine: This muscular wine has phenomenal density, dry vintage port-like concentration, and magnificent notes of smoke, blackberries, cassis, leather and coffee.

About this Wine: "Taylor's finest and rarest wine, the very pinnacle of port. Only in a year when everything is perfect does Taylor's `declare' a vintage. With the company's reputation at stak...

Wine Spectator: Rich but delightfully pure, with a stunningly gorgeous, pure beam of unadulterated raspberry preserves driving through the middle, showing hints of plum, anise and blueberry h...

About this Wine: " Lynch-Bages made primarily from Cabernet-Sauvignon, is famous for its fine bouquet and rich tannin, which becomes soft and delicious with age. Lynch-Bages is powerful with a...

Wine Spectator: Very impressive. Intense, tannic red that won't disappoint. Packed with smoke, charred wood, tar, black truffles, cassis and other interesting aromas and flavors. Full-bodied,...

Wine Spectator: Firm, slightly dusty-edged plum and cassis fruit here, with a good sappy feel on the finish. Underlying tarry edge. Solid, if a bit reticent today.-J.M.

Wine Enthusiast: This wine is big, dense and impressive with plenty of concentration as well as acidity. It is balanced, bringing the big, ripe black-fruit flavor and firm tannins together wit...

Wine Spectator: Not shy at all, with a flamboyant, aromatic profile of roasted apple wood and warm ganache, featuring more than enough stuffing in the form of thickly layered blackberry paste...

Wine Spectator: Features a dark currant and blackberry coulis core, surrounded by charcoal, singed savory and light coffee notes. The solid, firm, taut finish should let this linger in the ce...

Wine Spectator: Delivers a pure beam of cassis, raspberry and cherry, with lightly toasted spice notes and a firm plum skin edge holding sway on the finish. Stretched out somewhat already, th...

Wine Spectator: Manages to harness the angularity of the vintage extremely well, almost burying the acidity in the core of cassis, black cherry skin, plum pit and maduro tobacco flavors. This...