2008 Dominus

Just a beautiful wine here. Multifaceted and multilayered, the wine is full-bodied, rich, concentrated, and ripe. Situated perfectly on the corner of ripe and balanced, the wine is showing just beautifully with all of its layers of sweet, lush, ripe, polished red and black fruits, cocoa, licorice, vanilla, chocolate, tobacco, and herbs on the nose and palate. The harmonious finish lingers, which is a good thing because this is so good, you never want it to end.

(14.1% alcohol): Bright, saturated ruby. Tight, restrained nose hints at blackberry, cassis, plum, mocha, tobacco, licorice and menthol. Dense but quite dry and backward, offering noteworthy breadth and mineral lift but a bit lacking in give and still youthfully subdued. In a rather uncompromising, even medicinal style, with licorice and herb notes leavening the wine's riper plum and mocha flavors. One of the more backward '08s I tasted this year, hiding its sweetness today. More gripping than it appeared to be in the year following bottling but in need of more cellar time to expand.

(a blend of 83% cabernet sauvignon, 13% cabernet franc and 4% petit verdot): Good full red-ruby. Fresher on the nose than the Napanook, showing raspberry, plum, mocha and tobacco aromas. Round and plummy in the mouth, with a restrained sweetness to the flavors of milk chocolate, mocha and licorice. A wine of moderate ripeness for the vintage, and in a shell today. Finishes with substantial dusty tannins and notes of plum, mocha and chocolate. I don't find quite the structure or grip of the best years.