Healthy red-ruby. Bright, cool cassis and licorice aromas are complicated by bitter chocolate, tobacco leaf, black pepper and fresh herbs. Smooth on the palate, with enticing, somewhat herbal flavors of dark berries, rosemary and thyme. Offers an attractive restrained sweetness and finishes with serious but fine-grained tannins and a slight rigidity. Winemaker O'Cuinneagain noted that he's making this wine in a more accessible, generous style these days, doing a less extractive vinifiction and using less new oak. I find these tannins a bit more noble than those of the Merlot but this wine nonetheless needs a bit of time to expand in the bottle.