This wine is marked by exceptionally ripe, forward flavors of blackberry jam and black currants, with a sweet coating of smoky oak. In fact, flavor is what drives this wine, although it also shows fine, complex Diamond Mountain tannins that give it a dramatic structure. Seems best now and for the next three years.——S.H.(4/1/2012)—— 91

Really, really dry, tough and tannic, with some cherry, currant and oak flavors. Puckers the palate into numbness. Will it age? Probably not, but you can throw the dice.——S.H.(8/1/2010)—— 84