94 Points | International Wine Cellar , November/December 2011

(76% cabernet sauvignon, 14% cabernet franc, 7% merlot and 3% petit verdot; this used to be a single-vineyard wine but Palengat is now used as the name for a proprietary Bordeaux blend):  Expressive aromas of cassis, cocoa powder and brown spices.  Sweet and smooth on entry, then intensely flavored and tactile in the middle, with a plush creme de cassis flavor framed and intensified by mounting graphite minerality.  Wonderfully suave wine with terrific back-end volume, very smooth tannins and lingering spiciness.  Paul Golitzin describes 2008 as "focused and complex," while the 2009s, he says, are "ripe and fruity, like the 2005s."  He says that he may prefer 2009 at this stage.

97 Points | Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate