49% Merlot; 47% Cabernet Franc; 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. In its strong focus on ripe black cherries and sweet currants with a twist of dried raspberry, this blended wine finds a higher level of range than is typical of the directly fruity Sonoma style. That the wine is full-bodied and broadly tannic at this point accounts for the absence of California-style juiciness in its flavors, but their convincing depth and the need for a fair measure of cellar aging intimate that this wine has the structure ...

Deep, bright ruby-red. Complex, spicy nose melds currant, black cherry, licorice, iron and flinty minerality. Suave, sharply delineated and deep, with a terrific core of spice to the classy, perfumed fruit. This boasts stunning inner-mouth aromatic character and a wonderfully subtle sweetness. The noble, fine-grained tannins complement the wine's slow-mounting, extremely long finishing flavors. This should be spectacular with four or five years of bottle aging.