Soft chocolatey nose also showing some spearment and alcohol. Somewhat evolved on the palate, and while obviously the mellowest wine of the night, I'm not sure it aged entirely gracefully, as it were; it comes across dry and acidic with a metallic inflection as well as some "goutte de merde." The fruit was still surprisingly youthful given its age.

Smells like cured meats. On the palate, it comes across rich but simple with a raisined Amarone-like personality. The finish is hot and tinged green but it carries enough lingering flavor not to ring hollow. Nobody guessed this was the 1988. Later in the evening, it tasted much smoother but still could have passed convincingly for a recent release.

Everyone agreed that this wine was the slut of the flight. Aromas were sweet and expansive, combining chocolate and fruit. Though supple and elegantly textured on the entry, it turned very oaky, showing heavy chocolate on the midpalate and raw wood on the finish.

Not aging well. Aromas are nearly imperceptible but what is there is a very chemical perfume or hairspray note. On the entry, the wine is hollow and dominated by tannin. It's firm and bricky and similar to how a lackluster 1994 Bordeaux would show at this stage.

At least a plurality thought this wine was a ringer, with its strong, pungent nose encompassing root beer and plump grapiness. Its youthful, bright magenta color departed wildly from everything else poured so far, and it was heavy and grapey to taste. My first thought was Sagrantino, but a few others guessed Australia, which seemed to make sense as the fruit flattened without losing any weight or breadth. There was also a touch of unclean sweatiness.

The ringer. Explosive sweaty, funky nose. Comes across in distinct stages--first is the rich, prodigiously structured entry, then a sweet midpalate like pure chocolate, and finally a floral, violet finish. The definition is excellent, even as each stage is simple and dolled up. It probably spoke well of the California wines that the sluttiest wine of the night was the ringer, even though nobody guessed it.

Overall this was probably one of the classier wines of the night. Nose is slight and mostly closed. Richness is apparent on the entry but the texture is supple in spite of the tannic finish. It starts out simple but acquires some more complexity with air, including some herbiness. With more air, it's less civilized, with more exuberant raspberry fruit.

This is kind of a bruiser but also rather generic. Tannin builds with each taste, and the fruit is pure grape.

This was a controversial wine, with a lot going for and against it. At first the nose is explosive and pungent, the flavors dense and nondescript. With air, the nose develops an interesting freshness with lavender and cucumber scents, but also an offputting hairspray/aerosol note.

Extreme stink on the nose, combining the signature scents of the extreme California style (chocolate, creme brulee) with disgusting chemical flaws, including baind-aids, sulfur, and hairspray. Just yuk. On the palate, the wine was super-ripe, dense, and chocolatey, though unlike many of the others with these characteristics, this wine balanced it out with a fierce structure. With air, the rough tannin remains and some of the stink subsides, but not the aerosol and band-aid.