15% Merlot; 1% Petit Verdot. This wine's medium-intensity and nicely focused aromas of currants and creamy oak are filled out with a smoky, toasty note. The wine is quite supple and inviting in mouthfeel with a certain plump and polished quality at entry and a nice bit of firming tannin at the finish. It is attractively long in its flavors and aftertaste and boasts the requisite stuffing for half a dozen years of cellar aging.

Saturated ruby-red. Cassis, mocha, earth and smoky oak on the nose. Moderately sweet, pliant flavors of dark berries, plum, sassafras and chocolate. Finishes with fairly sweet but slightly dry tannins and late notes of chocolate and dill. Not especially complex but not bad.

Rating for United States-California: 96 (excellent)<br/><br/>Drinkability: too young, let it sit<br/>

Showed primarily as reviewed, only that the finish began to show hints of age. Drank early 2009.