It comes with a premium price, and its riveting richness, sheer sense of scale and inarguable depth go a long way in justifying its expense, but we would side with those who find the wine a bit overdone and too roughened by tannin and heat. Time in the cellar is certain to smooth out many of its edges, but its hard-charging ripeness and undisguised alcohols seem an indelible stamp and indicate service with appropriately robust and full-flavored foods.

Blackberry, cherry, minerals and spicy oak on the nose. Thick but lively, with juicy, fairly precise flavors of blackberry and spice. The tannins are fine but the wine showed some increasingly oaky dryness with aeration.

Rating for United States-California: 92 (excellent)<br/><br/>Drinkability: young, aging quickly, could be good now<br/>