Full ruby. Superripe aromas of roasted plum, saddle leather, smoked meat, mint and oak spice. Huge, thick and sweet; extraordinarily ripe but supported by firm, ripe acids. Really suffuses the palate with sweet fruit. Explosive aftertaste features roasted berry, leather and woodsmoke notes and uncanny sweetness. Showing extremely well today but built to age.

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The essence of vineyard and the varietal, the 1997 Astralis has a saturated purple color and is just beginning to show more nuances, such as the tell-tale Syrah characteristics of pepper, melted asphalt as well as a wealth of blackberry and creme de cassis fruit. The new oak seems to have been sucked up completely, and the wine shows softness and evolution. Nevertheless, it is still a very youthful, backward, spectacular wine that has surreal levels of richness and potential complexity.

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