The 1999 Cask 23 exhibits a deep plum/garnet color with purple nuances. Vanilla, espresso, lavender, and sweet red as well as black currants emerge from the stylish bouquet, which promises more than the palate delivers. The wine is medium-bodied, a bit angular, with austere tannin, excellent purity, but little depth and intensity. Anticipated maturity: now-2011. Perhaps my opinion is in the minority, but I can’t understand anyone suggesting that this winery is making wine today as profound as it did in the seventies and eighties. But then again, wine tasting is very subjective. Tel. (707) 944-1303; Fax (707) 944-9433

Restrained for a ’99, this wine hides its potential in a youthful cloak of oak and tannin. Cellar this while you’re drinking your cult Cabs, and come back to it in 2009. —S.H. ——S.H.(2/1/2003)—— 92