This youthful dark ruby/purple-colored wine tastes younger than its age would suggest. The impressively saturated color and nose of cassis, cedar, and smoke are followed by a wine with gobs of fruit, lavish quantities of smoky wood, great ripeness, and a chewy, full-bodied, chocolatey personality. I would opt to drink this intense, full-bodied wine now and over the next 10-12 years. The tasting notes for this section are from two single blind tastings, one conducted in May, 1996, in California, and the other in June, 1996, in Baltimore.