Wine Advocate - Robert Parker (97)

The 2000 Montefalco 25 Anni simply multiplies all the elements exponentially with room-filling aromas of sweet berry fruit and perfectly integrated oak and a mouth-coating cascade of ripe fruit, powerful, dense, and sensual tannins in a swelling flow of unrelieved pleasure. I would be very surprised if this wine did not last another two decades.

Wine Enthusiast (92)

This is a lightweight Cristal, floating and fresh, without the punch this great wine can have from Pinot Noir. It is also way too young. To taste, there is good balance, but the persistent grapefruit flavor shows the wine's youth.

Wine Advocate (93)

A forward, sexy-style Cote Rotie that shows more oomph than most in the vintage, Jamet's 2000 Cote Rotie offers the hallmark complexity of the estate with its perfumed raspberry, game, flowers, olives and peppery bouquet. This carries to a full-bodied, voluptuously textured, seamless wine that has excellent purity, low acidity and tons of charm. Probably closest in style to the 1990, drink this character-filled beauty over the coming 5-7 years.

Wine Advocate (96)

The 2000 Fonseca continues to exude finesse and focus on the nose, with pure blackberry, juniper berries, licorice and a touch of sloes, perhaps as Adrian Bridge remarked, just beginning to close after ten years in bottle. The palate is underpinned by very fine tannins, a sensual, svelte texture with wonderful acidity. The harmony and symmetry is alluring, the finish precise and demonstrating the persistency to suggest a long future ahead. Drink 2020-2060.

Vinous (95)

(LD210008): Bright gold. Pungent aromas of candied orange, buttered toast, pear skin and vanilla, with a smoky nuance that gains power in the glass. Stains the palate with intense pear liqueur, citrus pith and brioche flavors, picking up notes of licorice and candied ginger with air. A bright mineral note adds lift and energy to the finish, which clings with superb tenacity and lingering smokiness. This complex, concentrated Champagne is showing very well right now but has the legs to age for years to come.

Wine Advocate (100)

One of the wines of the vintage, the 2000 has barely budged in its evolution since it was bottled and released in 2002. After ten years in bottle, it still reveals a dense opaque purple color along with a potentially sensational bouquet of blueberries, black currants, graphite, asphalt and background oak. Extremely powerful, full-bodied and superbly concentrated with good acidity and high but round tannins, this massive La Mission-Haut-Brion should take its place among this estate’s most hallowed vintages when it hits full maturity in another one to two decades. I was surprised by just how youthful this wine tasted at age 12. If tasted blind, I would have guessed it to be around 4 to 5 years old. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2050.

Decanter (100)

A legendary wine, with reason. I have only tasted this once, at the home of a very kind friend, exactly as it should be drunk – over a dinner table, where it managed to stop the conversation. It is still young, just now starting to open up to reveal its dazzling array of black and blue fruits, black olives, truffles and well-defined tannins exerting an influence over the structure. The mineral slate side of Lafleur is now fully in its stride, tugging you back as you reach the end, keeping you hanging on for more.

Wine Advocate (97+)

Deep garnet colored with a touch of brick, the 2000 Mouton Rothschild (composed of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14% Merlot) boldly bursts from the glass with tantalizing Black Forest cake, dried mulberries, kirsch and blackcurrant pastilles notes plus wafts of iodine, incense, potpourri and cinnamon stick with a hint of cigar boxes. Medium to full-bodied, the palate packs in the muscular fruit, framed by firm, ripe, grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with phenomenal length. This is an incredibly complex and multifaceted wine, and it's drinking deliciously now. This said, I can’t help but feel that it is holding something back, that it still has another layer of opulence and seduction to reveal in its tight-knit fruit and solid structure. I personally can’t wait to see how this beauty will continue to unfold over the years to come.

Wine Advocate (97)

The 2000 Château Pichon Baron is just getting better and better and better. Perhaps the magnum format played its part, but nevertheless...just...wow. This is a millennial Left Bank with the keys to the top drawer. It has an incredibly precise, mineral-driven bouquet with intense black fruit infused with cedar and graphite scents. It just reeks of Pauillac in an almost uncompromising, yet compelling manner. The palate is structured, stylish and effortless, extraordinarily pure and unerringly youthful. This is a Pichon Baron saying, You ain't seen nothing yet. You could broach this now if you wanted, but the clever people will wisely bunker this for another decade and gloat from 2025 onward. Tasted January 2016.

Mark Squires (99)

This old wine was acquired by Quinta do Vallado and said to be an 1866 Colheita (although Francisco Spratley Ferreira of the winery tells me he can't honestly say for sure if it is a true single-vintage Colheita, which is why it is marketed just as "Tributa"), pre-phylloxera vines. It was bottled for Antonia Adelaide Ferreira's 200th anniversary--a woman who built a lot of Douro and was the ancestor of Vallado's owners. Francisco told me (with some typos corrected) that "we think it is a true colheita, but it's impossible to be sure... We bought this wine and the owner said to me that [he] never touched ... this wine last 50 years! We believe that with this concentration and baume (13,5), this is really very old and wasn't "refrescado" (add young wines to fill the barrel).... At same time it' s amazing the acidity, especially thinking in this baume! The wine only was bottled last weeks!" I've run into my share of really old Ports recently--1863 Niepoort, Sequeira, the NV Wine and Soul "5G"--all were exceptional and all were very different. This would be my winner of that group. If you are really loaded, keep reading. Very dark in color and far thicker than the 5g (although not, perhaps, as vibrant), this is remarkably thick and viscous--there seems to be no question that it is old and concentrated. It is very complex, too. Laced with molasses and dark chocolate, and a touch of charcoal, it is enlivened by a big hit of acidity. The texture is quite caressing and sexy. Its age shows mostly in its thick demeanor. It reminds me of some century old Moscatels I've had in Southern Portugal. It is remarkably sweet and fresh in most other respects. It is a wonderful experience. There is bad news. You could predict this, huh? There were 1,300 bottles produced--and they are coming in special decanters running around $3,000 per 750ml bottle. (No, I didn't get one of those bottles, but I did get a sample taste!)

Wine Advocate (98)

Among the most saturated blue/purple/black-colored examples of the vintage, Taylor's 2000 tastes like a young vintage of Chateau Latour on steroids. Aromas of graphite, blackberry liqueur, creme de cassis and smoke jump from the glass. Spectacularly concentrated and enormously endowed, with sweetness allied to ripe tannin, decent acidity, and layer upon layer of fruit and extract, this is the leading candidate for the port of the vintage. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2040.