The 2004 Minimum is a blend of 70% Monastrell and 30% Cabernet Franc aged for 16 months in 1-year-old French oak before being bottled unfiltered. Opaque purple, it offers a complex perfume of cedar, tobacco, leather, earth, black currant, and blueberry. On the palate the wine is smoothly-textured with tasty sweet fruit but it fades rapidly in the finish. Drink it over the next 5-7 years. Importer: Tom George, Frontier Wine Imports, Dover, NJ; tel. (973) 328-4500

Minimum was impressive wine in 2003 and it’s better in 2004. Cambra’s blend of 70% Monastrell and 30% Cabernet Franc is probably the best wine coming from the obscure Valencia D.O. It is generous, balanced, rich and lusty; flavors of blackberry, cassis and plum are succulent and every hole or gap seems filled by tannin, flesh and flavor. Drink now through 2011.——M.S.(10/1/2009)—— 92