Decadent and complex, this wine just oozes pastry-filling flavors of blackberries, cherries, chocolate and sweet oak. Such pretty tannins, such balancing acidity.
— S.H.
(12/31/2006)
This Merlot-based Bordeaux blend comes from both cooler and warmer parts of Napa, including mountains. It’s a very fine wine that will probably hold, although year by year it will lose its gorgeous babyfat deliciousness. More tannic than Falcor’s ’02 Cabernet, it has similar blackberry, cherry, cassis and chocolate flavors that have been well-oaked in new barrels.
— S.H.
(12/31/2006)
This is quite a good Syrah that impresses all the way through. The first sniff is of a burst of white pepper, while the first sip assaults the palate, in a good way, with ripe blackberry, plum, mulberry and roasted meat flavors, and a sprinkling of cloves and anise. It’s an upscale wine, but softness will limit ageability, so drink now through 2008.
— S.H.
(12/15/2007)
Based on Cabernet Franc, this Bordeaux blend is delicious in flavor, but it’s also quite tannic and needs some time in the bottle to come around. It floods the palate with blackberry, cherry and currant flavors that have been generously oaked, and finishes dry and balanced. Hold until after 2009.
— S.H.
(12/31/2008)
Lots to like in this wine, with plush, smoky oak framing luscious red and black cherry and chocolate flavors, and the finish is smooth and dry. The major flaw is an excessive softness that makes the wine lack balance.
— S.H.
(12/15/2007)
The 65% new oak is not balanced. Hard to say why. The fruit’s there, all gooey pineapple tart and sweet vanilla buttery pie crust, and the alcohol doesn’t bother me a bit, but the wine loses points for that toothpick taste.
— S.H.
(12/31/2006)
There’s an earthiness to this Chard, and a softness despite high (.65) acidity. The flavors veer toward peaches and pineapples, with sweet, fresh green thyme and lots of toasty new oak. Pretty good, with an oaky, honeyed finish.
— S.H.
(12/31/2006)
From grapes in the Russian River and Dry Creek valleys, this Zin, which has a fine, complex tannic structure, shows a raisiny, sweet edge that was a result of the searing vintage. Overripe fruit gives a taste of sugared blackberry juice.
— S.H.
(12/15/2007)