This wine provides an abject lesson regarding the importance of balance. I remember the first time I tasted it in the late seventies. It was so opulent, soft, and voluptuously-textured that it appeared it would not be long-lived. Twenty years later the wine remains a rich, opulent, supple, velvety-styled Cabernet revealing some amber at the edge but few other signs of age. It reaffirms the concept that if a wine is rich and well-balanced young, and made from grapes resistent to oxidation (i.e., Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Mourvedre), it can remain rich and well-balanced for decades, assuming, of course, good storage. With its chocolatey, blackcurrant, smoky nose, and super-rich, concentrated, unctuously-textured flavors, this is a dazzling wine. It has always been a hedonistic wine and my July tasting confirmed once again its decadent personality.