The 1986 Cabernet Sauvignon Bella Oaks exhibits a medium garnet color with considerable amber at the edge. The wine is acidic, with tough tannin, and an intrusive, grainy, herbal quality to its lean, spicy, moderately-endowed flavors. A mediocre wine, it has quickly lost its fruit. This wine was less impressive than when I first tasted it. 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.