3 | Wine | Central Coast, 1.5 L

"The 2009 Monte Bello bursts from the glass with an exciting array of radiant fruit. It is a striking wine endowed with superb purity, dazzling finesse and breathtaking textural elegance. Despite the expressiveness of the fruit, there appears to be more than enough underlying structure for the wine to develop beautifully for decades."

"Smoky cherry and cassis aromas are complicated by wilted rose, cured meat, licorice and sexy oak spices. Lush and creamy in texture, offering well-delineated red- and blackcurrant flavors, good dusty tannic grip, and a sweet, expansive finish. Impressively deep and chewy, but good mineral lift keeps everything in check."

"Deep ruby. Explosively perfumed nose offers a profound bouquet of ripe cherry, blackcurrant, yellow rose, Asian spices and vanilla bean; you could use this for incense. Deep and sweet but remarkably precise, offering powerful dark berry and kirsch flavors supported by substantial, velvety tannins. The fruit plows through the finish with superb energy, depth and clarity, fully absorbing the tannins. A big but wonderfully balanced example of Monte Bello, and sure to reward extended cellaring."