5 | Wine | 2000 | Page 2

"A strikingly provocative aromatic display. This firmly-structured, classic, tightly-knit, restrained port exhibits brilliant purity as well as impressive intensity."

"Smells like freshly picked orchids, with loads of ripe, clean fruit. Full-bodied, medium sweet and very powerful and racy. It lasts for minutes on your palate. Yet there's a balance and class to this young Vintage Port. This is the greatest glass of Graham I have ever tasted, young or old."

"Intense aromas of ripe fruit, sandalwood and perfume. Full-bodied, with lovely ripe fruit flavors and velvety tannins. Long, sweet fruit finish. Soft, layered and gorgeous. Exciting in a reserved way."

"This is one of the great wines of the vintage, and certainly a candidate for one of the finest wines made at this estate under the management of Christian Seeley and proprietor AXA. Showing incredibly well at two tastings of 2000s, the wine has a dense bluish/purple color and a beautiful nose of incense, melted asphalt, and creme de cassis as well as hints of new saddle leather and licorice. It is superbly concentrated and very pure, with excellent texture and opulence. The acidity seems low, the tannin high but well-integrated. This is a compelling 2000 that is just closing in on its window of maturity and should stay there for at least 20 or more years. Bravo!" Reviewed by Robert Parker, Jun 2010.

"I tasted this wine twice during the 2000 horizontals, then I actually popped the cork and drank a half-bottle of it. This wine remains, for me, one of the compelling success stories for proprietor Gerard Perse. An extraordinary effort made from a blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon from the limestone soils that dominate this very distinctive terroir, the 2000 Pavie has moved out of the closed, dormant, broodingly backward stage into an adolescent period where one can see its extraordinary vibrancy, and great complexity as well as potential. It boasts an unctuous display of rich, cedar box-infused cassis fruit and liquid minerality. The tannins have sweetened, yet the wine has thirty years of longevity and potential evolution. A beautiful wine of great mass as well as elegance, it is good to see the extraordinary efforts that Gerard Perse and his team have made confirmed in this prodigious wine. A legend now ... a legend for the future." Reviewed by Robert Parker.

"This is super for a second wine. Fantastic aromas of chocolate, berry and coffee. Yet very classy and subtle. Full-bodied, with a reserved rich and caressing texture. Loads of ripe and wonderful fruit in this."

"A delicious, complex effort, the fully mature 2000 Lanessan offers notes of cedarwood, plums, loamy soil, and damp earth, medium to full body, plenty of spice, and a classic Bordeaux personality." Reviewed by Robert Parker.

"Dense ruby/purple-colored, with an exotic, exuberant perfume of black fruits, flowers, incense, and licorice, this unctuously-textured, full-bodied port is one of the most concentrated of the vintage. Sweet, expansive, and succulent, this large-scaled, but remarkably well-balanced effort is surprisingly forward and accessible (by Fonseca's standards)."

"This is a triumphant 2000, flamboyant, super-concentrated, yet classic in proportions. Lavish notes of roasted espresso, melted chocolate, creme de cassis, toasty new oak, and Asian spices jump from the glass of this sensationally perfumed, rather ostentatious 2000. It is enormously concentrated and pure, with low acidity and exquisite balance. Remarkably, in spite of its large size, viscosity, and opulence, it is fresh and delineated." Reviewed by Robert Parker.