93 points Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar: "Deep red-ruby. Complex nose melds cassis, violet, licorice, musky game, black tea and black olive. Denser than the Napa Valley offering but tighter today, with its sweetness currently under wraps. But this serious, backward wine turns sweeter on the back end, finishing with broad, dusty tannins, an intriguing note of tobacco and sneaky length. Structured for a slow evolution in bottle but even today this is not especially austere." (May/June '09)