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Here is a huge ripe and luxurious wine, with great power. The texture is solid, filled with firm tannins, the flavors are black and ripe. Along with the power, though, is much of the elegance and poise that characterizes great Saint-Julien.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WEA beautiful wine from Branaire, the 2000 is close to full maturity, and should offer plenty of pleasure over the next 15-20 years. Its deep ruby/purple hue is accompanied by scents of boysenberries, black currants, and spring flowers. This medium to full-bodied, pure St.-Julien hits the palate with authority, displaying silky tannins as well as wonderful richness, depth, and texture.Robert Parker | 94 RPThis sports a tarry-edged core of slightly chunky-textured plum paste and cassis flavors. The lively, brambly finish is a touch chewy but has good enough energy, with an ample dose of cocoa powder and licorice root in the end. A bit squared off overall, but there’s plenty of stuffing here to wait it out a bit longer.--Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Drink now through 2025. 15,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 92 WSThe 2000 Branaire Ducru was picked September 25 to October 10 at 12.7° alcohol. It has a similar bouquet to my previous bottle, unfolding discreetly in the glass to reveal cedar-infused red fruit, while hints of dried blood/meat juices evolve with aeration. The medium-bodied palate is elegant and old-school, offering frayed tannins, noticeable acidity and tobacco and black pepper on the finish, which lacks grip compared to other bottles. Decanting would certainly benefit this wine.Vinous Media | 90 VM

Revealing a style similar to Pavie-Macquin, this backward, dense purple-colored St.-Emilion exhibits a liquid limestone-like character along with abundant floral notes, considerable depth yet a structured as well as tannic, backward, pure personality. It requires another 4-5 years of bottle age, and should last 15-20 years thereafter.Robert Parker | 95+ RP

Absolutely fantastic. This is one of the most exciting young reds I have tasted in a long, long time. It shows intense aromas of berries, currants and minerals, with hints of mint. Full-bodied and packed with fruit and tannins, its long finish is refined and silky. A benchmark for the vintage. Las Cases has always wanted to make first-growth quality in a top-notch vintage, and it certainly did in 2000.Wine Spectator | 100 WSA classic Las Cases with masses of mineral, floral and blueberry character. Full and chewy, with so much power. It’s just opening now.James Suckling | 100 JSThis wine has put on weight and, as impressive as it was from cask, it is even more brilliant from bottle. Only 35% of the crop made it into the 2000 Leoville Las Cases, a blend of 76.8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.4% Merlot, and 8.8% Cabernet Franc. The wine is truly profound, with an opaque purple color and a tight but promising nose of vanilla, sweet cherry liqueur, black currants, and licorice in a dense, full-bodied, almost painfully rich, intense style with no hard edges. This seamless classic builds in the mouth, with a finish that lasts over 60 seconds. Still primary, yet extraordinarily pure, this compelling wine, which continues to build flavor intensity and exhibit additional layers of texture, is a tour de force in winemaking and certainly one of the great Leoville Las Cases. In another sense, it symbolizes / pays homage to proprietor Michel Delon, who passed away in 2000. Michel has been succeeded by his son, Jean-Hubert, another perfectionist. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2040.Robert Parker | 99 RPThe 2000 Leoville Las Cases is another brilliant wine and, like most 2000s, appears to just now be at the early stages of its drink window. Smoky black fruits, crushed rocks, lead pencil, and menthol notes all emerge from this brilliant, blockbuster beauty that still tastes like it’s just 5-6 years old. Beautifully concentrated, ripe, sexy, and seamless, it has the classic elegance and regal quality of this domaine front and center. It has another 3-4 decades of longevity.Jeb Dunnuck | 99 JDNow closing in on two decades, this is starting to soften and open, bringing exotic spices to the fore. The inky colour translates into tight black fruits with liquorice, cigar box, graphite and grilled gunsmoke. It’s still a little fierce in its tannic structure, and will need a few more years to be truly welcoming, but it’s clear that the grapes reached full phenolic ripeness. The invariably low pH at Leoville, often below 3.5 (as it is here), explains its iron grip. I last tasted this in October 2017 and it has barely budged an inch since then, but it gets significantly better after an hour in the glass (and being double decanted), giving you an idea of just how much life remains ahead. Harvest 28 September to 11 October. Drinking Window 2019 - 2050.Decanter | 98 DECThe 2000 Léoville Las Cases is a vintage that I have encountered a dozen or so times. Jean-Hubert Délon oversaw a magnificent wine in this year. The nose of graphite-infused black fruit is still vivacious and very complex, very Pauillac-like, and supremely well focused. Hints of licorice develop with aeration. The medium-bodied palate features sappy black fruit and perfectly judged acidity. Complex and delineated, with marine-tinged mulberry and black currant notes given a deft Oriental touch on the finish. Bottles are only just beginning to drink perfectly now and will last another 30 or more years.Vinous Media | 97 VMNo written review provided. | 95 W&S

Absolutely compelling in two tastings of this vintage, the 2000 Margaux is composed of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot. The extraordinary seductiveness, complex aromatics, and purity it exhibits lead me to believe it has reached its window of full maturity. Medium-bodied, with layers of concentration, stunning blue, red, and black fruits intermixed with spring flowers, a subtle dosage of new oak, and a distinctive personality that is elegant while at the same time powerful and substantial, this is a multi-dimensional wine that was extremely approachable and drinkable in both tastings I had of it. The color remains a healthy, even opaque bluish/purple, but there is no reason to hesitate to drink it. It should evolve for another 30-40 years, so there is no hurry either.Robert Parker | 100 RPTasted from magnum, the 2000 Château Margaux is a prodigious, flawless wine that shows the elegance and seductive hallmark of the estate paired with incredible density, depth, and richness. Its still-ruby/purple color is followed by sensational notes of crème de cassis, spring flowers, lead pencil, and sandalwood that develop beautifully with time in the glass. Medium to full-bodied, opulent, and seamless, with a multi-dimensional, layered texture, it has a massive mid-palate, sweet tannins, and a finish that won’t quit. It’s drinking brilliantly today, and there’s certainly no need to delay gratification, but it’s going to continue evolving for another 3-4 decades. Bordeaux (or red wine, for that matter) doesn’t get any better. The 2000 is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot brought up new barrels.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDViolet and iris aromatics curling out of the glass, starting to reach their full expression at 20 years old. Beautifully finessed and elegant, with hints of black truffle, cloves and rich blackberry fruits, this is a vintage that showcases the best of Margaux. It took its time to reach this point but it has been worth the wait, and the wine just gets better and better over a few hours in the glass. Highlights the success of the partnership between owner Corinne Mentzelopoulos and director Paul Pontantallier, with this château delivering some of the most memorable wines of the turn of the century years in Bordeaux. Drinking Window 2020 - 2050.Decanter | 100 DECThe 2000 Margaux kicked off a string of great wines. The aromas are spellbinding, with notes of raspberry and strawberry. The palate is incredibly silky yet structured. Impeccable balance.James Suckling | 100 JSThe 2000 Château Margaux has always been one of the stars of the millennial vintage. A dozen or so bottles over the years, starting with my first encounter from bottle with the late Paul Pontallier, have never disappointed. Philippe Bascaule did not decant this bottle, although it does deserve an hour’s aeration before serving. Deep in color with little aging on the rim, it has a very intense bouquet, sophisticated and almost aloof. Oddly, it reminds me of the 2000 Latour in its sense of aristocracy and breeding. The palate is medium-bodied with gorgeous, rounded, pliant tannins that frame the multilayered red fruit. Always a Margaux with considerable backbone, the 2000 has mellowed in recent years, though it has lost none of its complexity or ethereal balance. There is substance but not sinew, and the silky-smooth finish fans out gloriously. A brilliant Château Margaux from beginning to end. It’s difficult to find fault with this magnificent wine.Vinous Media | 99 VMThis continues to be a jaw-dropper, with beguiling lapsang souchong tea, singed sandalwood and fresh bay leaf aromas slowly wending along, while the core of pure cassis, raspberry reduction and warmed fig notes sits on a throne of perfectly embedded charcoal and tar-laced tannins. And with all the heft, there’s a beautifully long iron note to give the finish cut and elegance. Just dreamy.--Blind 2000 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2015). Best from 2018 through 2040.Wine Spectator | 98 WSNo written review provided. | 98 W&S

Dedicated to the memory of the British wartime Prime Minister, who regularly drank Pol Roger, this is always a superlative Champagne. This 2000, at 14 years old, has developed a pale gold color and toastiness. That intensifies the mature flavors and rich texture, while allowing the tight mousse and acidity to keep a sense of structure. It will age much further, although it is perfectly ready to drink now. Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThe 2000 Pol Roger “Cuvée Winston Churchill” is going to be an outstanding vintage for this fine bottling. The cépages this year is roughly eighty-five percent pinot noir and fifteen percent chardonnay (my host did not have the exact breakdown with him), the dosage was eight grams per liter and the wine is just now entering the market after eleven years on its lees. The wine offers up a fine, youthful nose of apple, tart orange, a very complex base of minerality, brioche, smoke and a fine dollop of citrus zest in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and nascently complex, with a rock solid core of fruit, excellent focus and grip, elegant mousse, brisk acids and outstanding length and grip on the racy and intensely flavored finish. A fine, fine example of Winston Churchill, I would give the 2000 vintage a good four or five years in the cellar to start to blossom before opening it with conviction. It should age very well indeed. (Drink between 2018-2060)John Gilman | 95+ JGThe 2000 Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill is another vintage that’s drinking at peak today, offering up aromas of yellow apples, crisp stone fruit, butter toast, honeycomb and butterscotch, followed by a medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy palate that’s pillowy, open-knit and charming. There’s no reason to defer gratification!Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94 RPThe first thing that is evident about the 2000 Brut Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill is its finesse and total silkiness. The 2000 is a rich, creamy and deeply expressive Winston Churchill. I don’t see the 2000 being an especially long-term ager, but it is wonderfully radiant and open today. Hints of pasty, spice, apricots and succulent ripe pears blossom on the expansive, broad-shouldered finish.Vinous Media | 94 VM2000 may not be the most highly rated vintage in its old age, but today some are surprising with their flamboyance and fun – perhaps this is a little more straightforward than some, but it’s immediate, deep and heady with dark honey, bramble and strawberries and cream, heading to tropical ripeness with mango and candied fruits. With a bittersweet twist on the smoky, chewy and buttery finish, this is carrying plenty of appealing fruit weight and impact. Tasted in magnum.Decanter Magazine | 94 DECA discreet, almost shy nose reflects notes of green apple, yeast and Meyer lemon nuances along with plenty of floral influence. By contrast there is plenty of body and punch to the powerful but not especially dense middle weight flavors that are supported by a full-on but not aggressive mousse as well as excellent depth on the lingering finale. This is very clearly still on the way up and even waiting another 5 to 7 years may not see this at its full apogee. What is clearly evident though is that this is going to be a very long distance runner in magnum format.Burghound | 94 BHSmoky, with firm structure and a minerally base note, this offers a fine, creamy texture and hints of dried apricot, lemon curd, cassis, biscuit and blanched almond. The lingering finish echoes the minerality with a touch of oyster shell. Drink now through 2018. 375 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 93 WS