Chateau Batailley 2000

JAMES SUCKLING: "So much white truffle and ripe fruit here with meat, cedar and berry character. Full and very rich. Decadent. Delicious now."

WINE SPECTATOR: "This has fully entered a second phase, with loads of cedar and alder notes leading the way for dried currant and lightly mulled blackberry fruit flavors. Lovely sanguine and tobacco accents fill in on the finish. A classically refined aged Bordeaux.—Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015)."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Tasted at the Batailley vertical tasting at the château, the 2000 Batailley displayed youthful vigor on the nose with boysenberry and damson fruit, incense and iodine. As I remarked when I last tasted this in 2011, there is an opulence here that this estate rarely produced up until this period. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin; this bottle is more backward than others, with firm tannin providing sturdy backbone. It remains a "burly" Pauillac for the vintage, and it is certainly masculine in style. Then again, that is a leitmotif of the millennial vintage. As such, I can envisage this mellowing in four to six year's time, whereupon it will have the substance to give drinking pleasure over many years. Tasted April 2016."

WEINWISSER: "Dunkles Weinrot, sanft violette Reflexe. Ausladendes, blaubeeriges Bouquet, pflaumige Süssnote, feine, reife Cabernet-Würze. Im Gaumen bereits angenehm weich anfühlende Tannine, Brombeertouch, mittlerer Körper, zarte Vanillenote, sehr gute Balance, harmonisches, langes, von viel Brombeeren getragenes Finale, Kandis- und Vanillenoten."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "This has a lot of easy to like Pauillac charm with its cedar, cassis, tobacco and earthy profile. Tannic, giving the wine a backbone and the ability to age, but the tannins are not overwhelming, this classic wine is fine to drink now, but another 2-3 years will add more complexity to the wine."