(61% cabernet franc, 31% merlot, and 4% each cabernet sauvignon and malbec): Good red-ruby. Musky aromas of blueberry, licorice and dusty spices. Dense and sappy, with terrific grip and saline intensity to the dark berry, dark chocolate, clove and mace flavors. Wonderfully energetic Saint-Emilion style of wine, with exhilarating inner-mouth spice character. Tannins are serious but suave and perfectly carried by the wine's density of texture and lingering fruit. A beauty.

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The fruit for this blend of 61% Cabernet Franc, 31% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec came from Chalk Hill (58%) and Alexander Valley (42%). Pierre Seillan believes the Chalk Hill fruit provides a truffle-like character and the Alexander Valley gives minerality, structure, tannin and intensity. The 2008 will be fascinating to taste next to the 2007 over the next 30+ years. Sweet mulberry, blueberry and blackberry fruit intermixed with notions of black truffles, damp earth and forest floor emerge from this beauty of stunning intensity, purity and texture. The alcohol is 14.4% and the relatively elevated pH is 3.76.

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Firm and well-built, with a chewy core of tannins wrapped around savory herb, cedar, dried berry and currant. Very Bordeaux-like in its structure. Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

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