($62) Good ruby-red. Currant, dark chocolate, licorice and mint on the nose. Fat and round but fresh and high-pitched, with pure, lively flavors of currant, menthol, licorice and fresh herbs. This offers excellent chewy depth. Finishes with strong but well-distributed tannins. An excellent vintage for this bottling, the first to be made completely from cabernet sauvignon.

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The dark ruby/purple-tinged 2001 Metisse exhibits a fully mature, St.-Emilion-like personality filled with sweet red and black currant fruit intermixed with roasted coffee, spicy oak, white chocolate, licorice and fruitcake. Medium to full-bodied with sweet tannin, an impressive texture and a long finish, this sexy, complex red can be enjoyed now and over the next 10-15+ years.

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Intense and firmly tannic, drying throughout yet very complex in its range of tobacco, cedar, dried dark berry, roasted herb and mineral. Best to decant, and for all its tannic muscle, it is expansive on the finish and the tannins give it traction. 2001 California Cabernet blind retrospective (June 2011). Drink now through 2017.

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