In the blind tasting, I first thought this was a Spanish wine given the intense, pain grillee, toasty oak, and vanilla aromas. After ten minutes some of the oak dissipated, allowing the wine's flamboyant blackcurrant fruit to emerge. Full-bodied, exceptionally concentrated, with a seamless, velvety texture, and a marvelously long, opulent finish, this 1986 Cabernet tastes like a jar of jam on the palate, with great purity and staying power. Although it appears to be fully mature, it will last for another 10-15 years. This impressive, sweet, creamy, exotic, and flamboyant wine merits the praise it has received.

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This remains a remarkably complex and flavorful wine, but now it's elegant and refined as well, with polished tannins. Classic Caymus in that it stretches the flavors, with a range that goes from herb and tea to ripe plum and cherry. Finishing with a long, complex aftertaste and still enough tannin to carry it another decade or more.--1986 California Cabernet horizontal.

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio

This remains a remarkably complex and flavorful wine, but now it's elegant and refined as well, with polished tannins. Classic Caymus in that it stretches the flavors, with a range that goes from herb and tea to ripe plum and cherry. Finishing with a long, complex aftertaste and still enough tannin to carry it another decade or more.