The 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon Wild Boar Vineyard is a big, muscular, back-strapping effort with huge blackberry fruit infused with melted asphalt and earth. Aged in 50% new oak, one half of which is American wood and the rest French, it is powerful, concentrated, and all-American in its blatant oak and lavish fruit, glycerin, and power. A success for the vintage, it should drink well for another 12-15 years. Tel. (707) 963-5711; fax (707) 963-7518

Light, elegant and sweet, as succulent as a chocolate cherry bonbon. It has the lip-smacking quality of a fine candy, a blast of stone fruit that coats the mouth in unguent sweetness and then lingers there for a while. ——S.H.(6/1/2002)—— 89