(63% cabernet sauvignon, 30% merlot, 5% cabernet franc and 2% petit verdot) Deep ruby-purple. Fresh aromas of dark berries, violet, smoked meat, spices and minerals. Concentrated and chewy in the mouth, offering a compellingly mouthcoating texture and superb thrust to its creamy red cherry, blackberry jam and black pepper flavors. Plenty of tannins here but they're nicely supported by the wine's sweet middle. Finishes very long, with a mineral nuance and a suggestion of blackberry syrup.

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Dark crimson. So racy and inky, mineral and sinewy. Chewy. SO youthful! Racy and sinewy. Lively, fragrant. Mouth filling and vibrant though it has yet to evolve much character but the balance seems promising. Acid dominates tannin here.

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This is one of my all-time favorite wines from Domaine de Chevalier, a silky, rather classic Pessac-Leognan with notes of scorched earth, tobacco leaf and black and red currants, but no hard edges. Fragrant, complex aromatics are followed by a savory, expansively flavored wine made from a final blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. The wine hit 13.5% natural alcohol, which must certainly be among the highest they have ever achieved, even eclipsing the 2009. An opulent, precocious style of wine that seems much more developed, complex and delicious than I thought from barrel, this beauty can be drunk in 5-6 years or cellared for 20 or more.

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