2008 Ramey Cabernet Sauvignon Annum

Also still youthful, the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Annum is a blockbuster from Napa that has full-bodied notes of crème de cassis, crushed flowers, dried herbs, and spice box. It’s rich, fabulously concentrated, and textured, and a brilliant wine that’s still youthful.

The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Annum is done in a very ripe, flashy style. Plump, juicy and forward, it is just beginning to show the first signs of aromatic nuance and complexity. The 2008 has aged impeccably, even if the elevated ripeness of the year is impossible to miss. Most of the fruit came from the J. Davies vineyard on Diamond Mountain.

(15% alcohol): Medium ruby-red. More medicinal and backward on the nose than the basic Napa Valley release, offering scents of black fruits, violet, bitter chocolate and minerals. A step up in density, size and concentration from the above, conveying a higher-pitched quality and more medicinal verve to its very pure flavors of dark fruits, minerals and spices. The rather brooding finish features serious tongue-dusting tannins and lovely echoing length. As firm as this is, there's also a creaminess at the core, but I'd still give it a couple more years to fully harmonize. Shows less easy sweetness than basic Napa Valley Cabernet but more intensity and length. Quite tight and dry in a positive way .