Napa Valley. A somewhat more open style is being offered by Rubicon these days, and, in this not always hospitable vintage, that direction has paid dividends. Because, while this wine does, indeed, want cellaring, it will require less than earlier Rubicons, and the result is a wine whose solid, fairly concentrated, tough but not forbidding makeup asks for three to six years in the cellar as opposed to a decade or more.

Saturated ruby. Pungent aromas of black cherry, coffee, bitter chocolate and violet. Dense, sweet and deep; this has broad, palate-coating fruit with the strength to support the big, cheek-coating tannins. Quite long on the aftertaste, and not overly oaky.