($275) Good full ruby. Wild aromas of blackberry, blueberry, cassis, bitter chocolate, mocha and violet. Then chewy and brooding in the mouth, with a youthfully medicinal black cherry flavor dominating. Aeration brought some explosive blackberry, mineral and graphite flavors, but today this highly concentrated wine is locked up by its powerful tannins. This one will need a solid decade of cellaring and may ultimately merit a significantly higher score. Last year I compared this wine to a Latour or Leoville-Las Cases, and that's the same impression I got this time around.

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The 2005 Vecina is also strutting its stuff. I can't say it showed better than it did last year, but this wine comes close to perfection for my palate. Made in a Graves-like style, it exhibits scents of roasted herbs, espresso, scorched rocks, and liquid minerals seamlessly integrated into a full-bodied, dense wine offering a cascade of black cherries and black currants. Built for the long haul, this powerful 2005 is soft enough to be drunk early, but it will not hit its stride for at least a decade, and should age for three decades thereafter.

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Intense and racy wild berry and blackberry fruit is flashy, tight, pure, focused and beautifully defined, picking up a nice dusty berry edge, with hints of black licorice, and offering wonderful depth, richness and persistence.

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Huge bright nose, very nice. Nice on palate and finish (although short). 98 RP. $275