92% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Cab. Franc; 3% Petit Verdot. A quick glance at this wine may leave the impression that it is a bit too tough and tannic and not quite as rich in fruit as it could be, but a second and third look finds it unfolding and revealing ever more richness and depth. As it opens, it shows elements of dark cherries, loam, sweet cream and touch of pencil-box spice, and its layered flavors are rife with curranty fruit that powers past its considerable tannins. As in vintages past, this latest opus from Dominus is a wine meant for keeping, and eight to ten years of cellaring seems a minimum wait.

Good full red-ruby. Highly complex nose melds black raspberry, minerals, milk chocolate, tobacco, licorice and brown spices. Wonderfully silky, sweet and broad; quite primary for a young Dominus vintage but with subtle earth tones adding nuance. This has plenty of high-quality tannins but the wine's buffering flesh gives it an impression of sweetness. One senses near-perfect ripeness here in the way the wine saturates the palate with flavor. Very suave and fine-grained wine that will almost certainly rank among the best half-dozen vintages of Dominus made to day. Incidentally, long-time winemaker Boris Champy has returned to his native France to make wine, and Ted Mostero, previously in charge of winemaking at Almaviva in Chile, is now in charge here.