This has an open expressive nose with upfront notes of forest floor, dried herbs and a touch of pencil shavings. Medium-bodied on the palate, quite fleshy and supple, without the depth of a better growing season with an understated blackberry, graphite-tinged finish. Drink now-2012. Tasted July 2008.

Neal Martin - Wine Journal Jan 2009

Not nearly as concentrated, although elegant, in a much lighter style than the 2003, with notes of cedar, herbs, red and black currants as well as licorice, this is a medium-bodied, more streamlined and austere Pavillon Rouge to drink over the next decade.

Robert Parker Jr - The Wine Advocate, 28 April 2005