2007 Proprietary Red, Paradise Hills Vineyard

(14.9% alcohol): Full medium ruby. Some slightly porty high tones to the aromas and flavors of black plum, espresso, licorice, violet and tar. Wonderfully suave, sweet wine with terrific depth of texture and harmonious balancing acidity. With its balance, energy and intensity, this wonderfully long, juicy wine is approachable and complex already, but will still improve and gain in nuance for many more years in the bottle. The ripe tannins saturate the molars.

(60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% merlot) Good dark ruby-red. Expressive aromas of currant, smoky oak and licorice. Large-scaled, voluptuous and wonderfully sweet; this fills the mouth and saturates the olfactories with an almost candied ripeness. Maintains its outstanding breadth clear through to the compellingly sweet back end, which features big, broad tannins and a repeating note of licorice. One could virtually chew this.

(like the '06, this is roughly 60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% merlot) Bright, deep ruby-red. Very ripe aromas of blackberry, licorice and violet. At once thick and sappy, with a powerful sense of solidity to the flavors of dark berry syrup and minerals. This boasts the density of the vintage's best examples, but there's also plenty of energy to leaven the wine's lush, full texture. Finishes with big but very fine tannins and outstanding length. (The Rive Droite blend had not yet been finalized at the time of my visit.)