Almost as perfect a Stags Leap Cabernet as you can find, showing lush, opulent and immediately appealing flavors. Blackberries, plums, cassis, dark chocolate and sweet oak combine in a spicy swirl. The tannins are fiercely soft, an oxymoron that suggests the wine’s complexity. Yet those same tannins are astringent enough to warrant time in the cellar. Hold until 2014, at least.——S.H.(4/1/2012)—— 94

Tough in tannins, with an astringent, lockdown quality. That’s the iron fist of this wine. The velvet glove is the rich, flamboyant core of blackberries and cassis. Give this young wine at least six years to come around. ——S.H.(6/1/2011)—— 92

This is Baldacci’s regular Cab, although most wineries would be content for it to be their reserve. It’s a powerful, rich young wine, massive in blackberry, currant and oak flavors, with a succulent edge of milk chocolate. The tannins are pure Stags Leap, giving a complex contrapuntal balance of grip and structure to the opulent fruit. Just fabulous in every aspect, a wine to dazzle. Drink now through 2010, at least.——S.H.(12/31/2007)—— 95