This deep garnet-colored wine has an opaque middle with light amber hues beginning to creep in at the edge. The bold, flamboyant nose of roasted coffee, chocolate, black olives, sweet oak, and black fruits explodes from the glass. Full-bodied, muscular, and highly extracted, with noticeably coarse tannin, this is an in-your-face, aggressive, highly concentrated wine that can be drunk now, but ideally needs 1-2 more years of cellaring. It should keep for another 15-20 years. The tasting notes for this section are from two single blind tastings, one conducted in May, 1996, in California, and the other in June, 1996, in Baltimore.