Plenty of apple with lemon peel traces and floral hints. Kept getting bigger and better with more time in glass. Charming now with upside.

Lots of peach and sweet spice aromas and flavors, in front of slight tropical notes. Rich and incredibly powerful. This kept unfolding with more time in glass. Very enticing. Perhaps not much upside here, but no fear to hold this in the cellar.

Open 30 minutes before serving. Black fruit with good concentration, just somewhat brawny and burly, so not the most nuanced CdlR in recent memory. Not as exciting as I recall from prior bottles.

Open 30 minutes before serving. Very dense, meaty and concentrated. Backward black fruit throughout that is still just hinting at its potential today. 90 points tonight, but I think 93 points in the future...at least 5 more years required.

Open 30 minutes before serving. Floral start with sweet black berry and cherry aromas and flavors, alongside licorice, darkly roasted coffee and sweet spice. Very concentration and weight, with a fun and forward start, then a more elegantly textural finish.

This is a wine I've never really understood, and certainly never fully enjoyed. Great nose with plenty of cherry and charming spice. Firm and clearly very acid-driven palate is much less enjoyable. Good+ for its level, but not where I truly want for a wine at this age, level and price.

Tasted alongside the 1996. Ripe and powerful with plenty of fruit and structure in good balance. This was a wine I adored for several years at/ near release, then found less exciting each time tasted post-2005, until it started re-emerging in the past few years. Still slightly tough to assess its trajectory.

Fresh and dried apricot and some candied orange rind. Starts sweet, finishes with good acidity and semi-tartness.