A super ripe and extracted wine, with licorice, blackberry, mocha and resiny oak aromas. No doubt about it, this is a jacked-up, fruit-driven bruiser. It’s oaky to the max, with vanilla and mocha flavors wrestling with the requisite black-fruit quotient. Creamy and rich late, with good flow to the finish. Very nice wine that lacks only definition and refinement.——M.S.(5/1/2009)—— 88