Maculan’s 2004 Crosara Breganze is textbook, high-class Merlot loaded with ripe, dark fruit, licorice, chocolate, toasted oak and grilled herbs. It offers superb inner sweetness as it caresses the palate from start to finish, its generous personality balanced by rich supporting structure that gives the wine its sense of harmony. This is a phenomenal effort. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2019. From top to bottom the most impressive line-up I tasted from Veneto were the wines of Fausto Maculan. Readers will find no shortage of compelling wines at all price points. Maculan remains best known for his sweet wines, but readers will also want to check out some of his table wines from the superb 2004 vintage. Quite honestly I was not prepared for the stunning quality of his Bordeaux-inspired high-end reds. Importer :Winebow, Hohokus, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620