A developed, medium ruby red. The nose has a lovely dried red fruit and raisin aspect – just a little coffee and smokey ash too. The palate unfortunately is a bit of a let-down: The fruit is nice enough – as is the texture – but from the mid-palate onwards this is a little bitter, weedy (for a Grand Cru) and woody. In fact the wood note hovers perilously close to taint, but we had two bottles with consistent notes. A shame, as I know the 1999 is a very nice wine. A friend had Alex’s ’98 V-R Suchots and it showed far better than this. Not worth the entrance price.