The winery’s top wine, it explores the uppermost possibilities of Dry Creek Valley Cabernet. The brusque tannins and briary, green peppercorns are reminiscent of Zinfandel, making the wine, despite elaborate blackberry and cassis flavors, somewhat rustic. Yet it’s an interesting rusticity, with lots of personality, and certainly provides an alternative to Napa’s soft lushness. ——S.H.(5/1/2011)—— 91

Bring this one down to the cellar and don’t touch it for a good six years. It’s a big, powerfully tannic wine, old-fashioned in its way, which is definitely not your modern cult style. With its flood of blackberries, black cherries, cassis, anise and cedar, it should purr away beautifully for many years.——S.H.(5/1/2009)—— 93