2006 Eisele Vineyard (Araujo) Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard is a surprisingly soft, round, delicious wine that, while quite backward and tannic last year, now seems to be up-front, forward, and easy to drink. Much lighter than I remember, with less color saturation, the wine has a dark plum/ruby color and an attractive nose of red currants, cherries, and black currants, with some loamy soil notes and hints of licorice. It is mid-weight, medium-bodied, and ideal for drinking now and over the next 12-14 years. The Cabernet Sauvignon from the Eisele Vineyard didn’t show nearly as well as I had hoped. In particular, the 2007, which I thought was great last year, seems to have gotten much lighter in style than what I had originally predicted. Tel. (707) 942-6061; Fax (707) 942-6471

Full ruby-red. Very ripe aromas of black raspberry, mocha, coffee and nutty oak, plus strong soil tones of spice, tobacco and iron. Wonderfully ripe and full but with a sappy menthol lift to the flavors of currant, minerals, mocha, tobacco and game. There's something Graves-like to this compellingly sweet wine. Compared to the Altagracia, the estate's flagship bottling has more of everything, including class. A worthy successor to the superlative 2005. (ST)

(I tasted an approximation of the final blend) Good full ruby-red. Spicy black cherry, tobacco, tar, licorice and menthol on the nose, all lifted by a floral topnote. Big and rich but quite primary; today this is like an essence of cabernet and quite unformed. Impressively broad and dry, with huge extract and emerging notes of graphite, menthol, tobacco, brown spices and earth. Very large-scaled, slowly evolving wine, finishing with powerful but round tannins. Winemaker Peschon noted that the estate's cabernet has been racked less frequently since 2000 (now just twice a year), but that the bottling date has been moved back, to 26 or 27 months after the harvest.