I have always enjoyed this St. Estephe, which has always upheld the reputation of this AOC for making firm long lasting wines. Bought this one on release and decided that I should take a first look at it, although I haven't yet commenced plundering my 1995 holdings.
Fairly dark, and showing a textbook cigar box/cedar/faint leather nose, good fruit levels and the tannins are resolving nicely. Very nice and promising for the future.
My usual practice is to buy a bottle on release, taste it and then use that datum for deciding on my buying (I am still slowly working my way through cases of 1986 and 1989). I didn't do that with this wine, perhaps hard to get so I just socked a half case away in the cellar. This was a promising indication that it was a good move!