Wine Advocate
byRobert Parkerthe4/30/1998
An outstanding success for the vintage, the 1997 l'Evangile, for my taste, is better than the estate's 1996. The 1997 verges on being over-ripe, but manages to pull it off without any flabbiness or shapelessness. It boasts a dense black/purple color, as well as sweet, exceptionally ripe aromas of blackberry liqueur, plummy jam, and a touch of prunes and truffles. Sweet, unctuously-textured, and fat, with exceedingly low acidity, this chewy, fleshy, powerful, well-endowed wine should prove to be a hedonistic head-turner when bottled. It will be delicious young, and should age for 10-15 years. This is an exciting, distinctive claret.