Vinous - Score: 89 (2009 May)

Good deep red with ruby highlights. Ripe aromas of smoky redcurrant, mocha and tobacco. Lush, suave and sweet, in a rather modern, fruit-driven style. A fairly big, rich and chewy wine with lovely purity of redcurrant, cedar and tobacco flavor and pliant tannins. In recent years, this wine has consistently turned out to be riper and smoother than early barrel samples have suggested.