2007 Carriage House DuBrul Vineyard

The Cabernet Sauvignon-based Cote Bonneville 2007 DuBrul Vineyard Carriage House – its 24% Merlot, 14% Franc scarcely differing from the blend in other vintages, since this wine represents essentially a row-selection – is one more delicious demonstration that if you can’t afford or locate bottles of this estate’s flagship you can indulge yourself with the high price-quality rapport of their other Bordeaux-inspired blend. Smoky black tea and Latakia tobacco as well as tomato foliage make for a pungent accompaniment to dried and distilled cherry on the nose, then inform a palate of admirable polish, clarity, and vivacity. Brown spices, tea, and persistently pungent herb and tobacco carry into a long and involved finish. But you’ll have to search hard to detect any obvious evidence of the two-thirds new oak in which this aged. Look for a decade of intrigue and delight. Dec 2012, www.robertparker.com