This youthful wine is as dark as asphalt at the core, but it has a bright strawberry rim. Briar patch and mulberry begin the nose. Then, there are intense inflections of vanilla bean and extract, so the wine is slightly better suited to lovers of generously fruited and somewhat overtly oaked wines. There’s just enough focused fruit, medium concentration and tingling structure to keep this wine in its liveliest phase. It has generous concentration to keep it invigorating on the palate, with a medium-length finish. Drink now through 2018.

— Published (6/11/2015)