($375) Saturated ruby. Pungent red and dark berries on the nose, with exotic floral and spice qualities expanding with air. Sweet, deep and incisive raspberry and bitter cherry flavors are energized by tangy minerals and pick up smoke and floral notes on the back end. The lush and creamy finish leaves a trail of spice and red fruit notes in its wake. This wine is built for cellaring but is showing a lot of complexity today.

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Made in a completely different style, the colossal 2005 Hermitage Ex-Voto is pure power, muscle, and concentration. Its inky/purple color is accompanied by an extraordinary, precise nose of creme de cassis, smoke, charcoal, incense, and spring flowers. Full-bodied with outrageous concentration, good acidity, noble sweet tannin, and a 60-second finish, this wine requires 5-6 more years of bottle age, and should drink well for 30-50 years.

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Rather sleek, with fresh, very rounded plum, cherry and blackberry fruit held together by notes of black tea, sweet earth and hoisin sauce. The texture is polished and the finish very long, with echoes of mocha flittering throughout. There's plenty of grip in reserve, and this should blossom in the cellar. Far more refined than the 2003, though not quite as dynamic.

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