There's elegance and grace within its form. Velvety smooth satsuma plum and blackforest fruits, layers of spice. Well-integrated French and American oak, shoyu, dark chocolate, roasting meats, cedar, tobacco leaf and earth. Cascading, powdery tannins provide ample support and the long finish features ripe plum, roast meat and chocolate tones as it slowly fades away. It'll certainly cellar like a champion, but it is approachable and very enjoyable even now. JH
Sweet and compact on entry. Blackcurrant, graphite and a tinge of sappy licorice root and spearmint at the edges. Yet this is fully ripe, succulent, amply weighted and built to please now, as much as it will age with grace. Lovely drinking. JS