90 Points | Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine

93+ Points | International Wine Cellar , November/December 2003

($85) Medium yellow color. Brooding aromas of pineapple, pine needles, toffee and nuts. Dense, full and quite dry, with penetrating fruit, hints of oak spice, and powerful acids that have not yet come into harmony. But this extremely impressive young Bollinger vintage shifts into a higher gear on the back end, showing even more flavor intensity than it does in the middle palate. This boasts the near-freakish combination of high ripeness and high acidity shared by the best '96s. Builds and builds on the back; one must practically scrape this off the palate. A worthy follow-up to the '95, and likely to develop in bottle for a couple of decades. (Dreyfus-Ashby, New York, NY)