This starts up slowly and moves on with speed. Super fine tannins and a mineral and flower and spice. Full and silky.

The Reserve de la Comtesse 2010, a blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, has a refined bouquet of dark cherries, plum and blackcurrant fruit that you might describe as “neat and tidy”. The palate is medium-bodied with quite a plush, generous entry thanks to that ripe Merlot. It is a forward wine for a 2010, very approachable with a fresh finish. It should drink well over the next 10 years. Tasted November 2012.

(90-92 pts)
A blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon and 46% Merlot, delivering 13.4% alcohol with a pH of 3.76 the Reserve has a relatively luscious, generous, Margaux-like bouquet thanks to its floral nature. Good definition and vigour. The palate is medium-bodied with a very tannic, cedar and graphite infused entry thanks to the Cabernet, quite strict and linear, very good weight (the most I have ever seen of a Reserve) with a slightly foursquare finish. Drink 2014-2025. Tasted March 2011.

If you’re looking for something much more drinkable, then check out the blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot and the rest Petit Verdot, the 2010 Comtesse de Lalande, the second wine of this estate. Sweet mulberry, black cherry, licorice, and forest floor notes dominate this medium-bodied, fleshy, soft wine, which should be drunk over the next decade.
-Robert Parker, Wine Advocate #205 Feb 2013

(89-91 pts)
2010 Reserve de la Comtesse: A blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot, this wine, which hit 13.5% alcohol (the 2009 was 13%) displays loads of chocolatey, herbal, black currant fruit and mocha-infused notes in a dark plum/purple-tinged, fleshy style. Drink it over the next decade.

(50% GV, 13.4%) [51CS/46M/3PV] Black red; finely tannic middleweight claret with a good concentration of fruit, very juicy merlot in flavour and texture, fullish, open, flowing fleshy yet lively second wine, with a nice complexity and both class, and length. Particularly harmonious, without being particularly big, 2016-30 [M.Schuster, Bordeaux Mar/Apr 2011]