As my Napa retrospective in Issue 219 proved, the 2005 vintage goes from strength to strength and has really never tasted any better than it is tasting at age 10. The final blend for Palazzo’s 2005 Right Bank Proprietary Red is 68% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon. Inky blue/purple, the wine spent 14 months in barrel, of which 40% was new French. A delicious, perfectly balanced wine with plenty of cedar wood, forest floor, black currants and black cherries intermixed with tell-tale coffee and chocolate notes, this was the most intense and deepest of the first three vintages I tasted. This beauty has at least another 10-15 years of aging potential.