A blend of 89% Merlot and 11% Cabernet Sauvignon (84% of the fruit from Sonoma and 16% from Napa), the 1999 is soft enough to be considered fully mature. Sweet aromas of espresso roast, plum sauce, black currants and forest floor are followed by a delicious, chewy, complex wine that should drink well for another 12-14 years.

This is a tough, briary wine, very tannic, with flavors of dried herbs, earth and blackberries. A Merlot–Cabernet Sauvignon blend, it may blossom into a magnificent wine in a decade, but it’s a gamble.——S.H.(11/15/2003)—— 87