2006 Fortification Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
The 2006 Fortification is more perfumed and graceful while still bringing serious intensity and depth. It offers a fabulous bouquet of chocolate covered blueberries, cherries, cigar wrapper, cedarwood, and candied figs. This full-bodied, opulent, layered, incredibly nuanced fortified wine is like a mix between a vin doux naturel from the Roussillon and a mature vintage Port. It's drinking fabulously well today, and I have no doubt it will continue to evolve for another 25-30+ years.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2006 Fortification sports a medium tawny color and rip-roaring nose of baked black cherries, dried mulberries, hoisin, blackcurrant cordial and fig paste with hints of star anise, chocolate box, sandalwood and new leather. Full-bodied and concentrated, with a gorgeous velvety texture, the flavors are superbly and seamlessly interwoven into the sweetness without the least bit of heaviness, and it finishes with epically long-lingering spicy layers.
Saturated ruby. Crushed cassis, licorice, dark chocolate and nuts, complicated by smoky high tones and lifted by a minty nuance. Superconcentrated, thick and a bit youthfully aggressive, with surprising acidity giving definition to the powerful blackberry and licorice flavors. Really spreads out to saturate the palate. This one strikes me as being midway between the 2004 and 2005 in style, the former wine being more evolved in the style of a tawny port and the latter much more primary and ruby in style (in fact, at the level of a seriously good vintage release from a top Portuguese shipper). This is plush enough to enjoy now but it should go on in bottle for many years.