1/99. Bought at a local auction, Mar-97 for $70 net.
One of the very few American wines in my collection. Tonight we opened my only bottle of this for quiet but extremely tasty and pleasant Friday night dinner at home, with mushrooms & bacon appetizer and a hearty and somewhat spicy Spaghetti Bolognese for main course, with Verdi's Nabbuco playing in the background...
COLOR: Extremely dark and dense. Hardly any change in color around the rim. Plenty of sediment in the bottle and expensive 'legs' on the glasses.
NOSE: Very deep and rich. Not bursting out of the glass but very concentrated. Gobs of black fruits aromas with pretty dominant new-oak. A bit jammy but not to the point of losing its elegance. Very dense nose that softened in the glass as time passed after each pour. Terrific!
TASTE: At first it was too tough even for me as heaps of hard tannins almost masked the tons of fruit. We decanted the bottle and it was a little better. We then let the wine spend time in large glasses and it got better yet. Profoundly rich and full of flavors. Plenty of everything there. Simply extraordinary with the tannins tamed down. Almost too rich to drink on its own. Was a true power-symphony with the mildly spicy pasta.
LENGTH: Extremely long vibrating aftertaste. The tannins of course held longer than any other flavor, but the finish was as fruity and winy as the mid-palate.
TEXTURE & BALANCE: A huge wine, still years from maturity. Too much oak on the nose and too much tannins on the palate. Yet, so much fruit, winyness, good acidity and fat texture that I have no doubt it will become perfectly balanced if and when its over-endowed adolescence will subside.
OVERALL: Superb-plus!! I only wish I had another bottle to enjoy in five years time...
MARK: 18.5/20.aaaaaaaaBUY MORE? Yes.

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Copyright 1996-2003.
Jacob "Yak" Shaya.