The inky/ruby/purple-hued 2005 Blend 25 (61% Cabernet Sauvignon and 39% Syrah) offers a big, sweet nose of blackberries, chocolate, coffee beans, and plums. Full-bodied with excellent fruit, low acidity, and a broad, savory mouthfeel, it should provide plenty of pleasure during its exuberant youth. This relatively new producer’s debut vintage was 2003, but these are the first wines I have tasted from B Cellars. Proprietors Jim Borsack and Duffy Keys have hired Kirk Venge as their consulting winemaker, and the wines are clearly made in a fruit-forward style that should satisfy consumers and restaurants looking for immediate drinkability. Two of their flagship wines are their Blend 24 and Blend 25. The Blend 24 is normally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, with some Merlot, followed by Sangiovese and Petite Sirah. The Blend 25 is usually a two varietal blend of two-thirds Cabernet Sauvignon and one-third Syrah. The third blend, the Blend 26, is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from three vineyard sites. Two-thirds come from the Stagecoach Vineyard above the Silverado Trail, 23% from the To-Kalon Vineyard in Oakville, and 11% from the Dr. Crane Vineyard in St. Helena.Tel. (949) 348-8820; Fax (949) 348-8821

This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah is too ripe and obvious for its own good. It’s very good, offering a vast wealth of pie filling blackberries, cherries, cassis, licorice and chocolate flavors, but you find yourself wishing that, at this price, it had greater structure and was a little more aloof and tantalizing.——S.H.(12/1/2008)—— 87