Chateau Les Carmes Haut Brion 2009

JAMES SUCKLING: "Round and friendly, with soft and velvety tannins and delicious plum, spice and meaty aromas and flavors. Juicy finish. Subtle and rich. Better in 2016."

WINE ENTHUSIAST: "Spicy wood here,with stewed pear and ginger, as well as fine berry fruits. The wine is solid, but elegant, with great ripe fruits."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Beautiful, Burgundian-like aromas of burning embers, roasted Provencal herbs, black currants and sweet cherries and raspberries emerge from this medium-bodied, elegant 2009 Pessac-Leognan. Medium to full-bodied and seductive with sweet tannins as well as a surprisingly evolved, precocious personality (even for a 2009), it will offer delicious drinking over the next 15+ years. This is another wine in which I noticed subtle bottle variation."

FALSTAFF: "Reife Herzkirschen, zart nach Dörrobst, etwas verhalten, Edelholzanklang. Kraftvoll, gut integrierte Tannine, ausgewogen, mit reifer Kirschenfrucht unterlegt, feine Bitterschokonote, bleibt gut haften, hat Reifepotenzial."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Blending 50% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon produced a wine with a smoky, black cherry, earthy nose, complicated by aromas of fresh herbs and smoke. On the palate, the wine is medium bodied, soft, round, elegant, fresh and displays a sweet plum and olive tapenade profile."

WINE SPECTATOR: "Still youthfully tight, this shows a packed core of plum, cassis and blackberry fruit wrapped with bittersweet cocoa, tobacco and charcoal notes. Nice drive marks the finish, with gorgeous polish, as a mouthwatering linzer torte note expands as it opens in the glass. Drink now through 2020. 2,083 cases made. — JM"