This wine is an impenetrable black color, with a tiny purple-hued rim. Its long, spindly legs drip down in a deep shade of purple. The nose is moderately forward and packed with highly ripe black fruits and tar. The palate delivers an exceptional amount of oak in the form of baking spice, vanilla extract, toasted croissant, maple syrup and caramel. Sweet blackberry and cassis struggle to arrive on stage, kept behind this heavy curtain of non-fruit flavors. The attack is lightly sweet from glycerol, but the finish is dry from thin yet dense and ripe tannins. Though full bodied and boisterous on the palate, it leaves almost no finish behind. While the oak is far from balanced, this wine will have many, many fans drink now through 2016.

— Published (6/16/2014)