Deep ruby. Hypnotic bouquet of red and dark berries, cherry-vanilla, Asian spices, cola, dark chocolate, violet oil and smoky minerality. Deep, sappy and pure, offering luscious, mineral-tinged black raspberry, cherry and floral pastille flavors and turning spicier with air. Supple tannins add finishing grip but are overwhelmed by the wine's energetic fruit. The minerality adds cut and urgency to the extremely long, pliant finish. Very sexy stuff.

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Not surprisingly, the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To-Kalon Vineyard is reminiscent of a great first-growth Pauillac. One of NapaâÂ?Â?s true first-growth vineyards, Hobbs obtains just about everything one could want from this extraordinary site. The phenomenal 2008 boasts sweet, juicy creme de cassis, incense, blackberry, toasty oak, licorice and spice box characteristics. Deep and full-bodied with great intensity, freshness, laser-like precision, copious tannin and a 60+ second finish. This cuvee is best forgotten for 2-4 years and drunk over the following three decades. It comes close to rivaling the 2007 and the virtually perfect 2002 (which I recently drank and was blown away by).

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A graceful, refined effort that offers a supple, polished mix of currant, plum and black cherry flavors, with loamy earth, spice, mineral and creme de cassis notes. Full-bodied and notably refined, this firms nicely on the finish, revealing more cedary, woody touches

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio