Juicy, with bright blueberry, raspberry and blackberry all rolled together, layered with spice and graphite on the finish. Nice range and focus.-J.M.

With a supple, soft, lush texture, moderate weight and plenty of sweet strawberry, black cherry and darker fruit as well as a distinctive herbal note, the well-made 2011 De Fieuzal is already seductive. It should drink nicely during its first decade of life.

Aromas of blackberries and spices with dark chocolate too. Medium to full body, with fresh acidity and a long clean finish. Racy tannins. A touch more in the mid-palate would be better.

The de Fieuzal 2011 appears to have a lot of extraction on the nose with super ripe dark cherries, crème de cassis and blueberry jam. It is very intense and primal, although missing a terroir expression. The palate is ripe and packed full of earthy fruit. There is certainly a lot of extraction here, ditto a lot of new oak that is very dominant at this stage. It needs to develop more finesse by the time of bottling. Tasted April 2012.

Drink 2016-2022 Black core. Sweet warm hedgerow fruit but also a little bit stalky and a bit overripe – heterogeneous fruit. Disappointingly tough on the palate. A bit heavy on the extraction? (JH)