2013 Gramercy Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

(14.2% alcohol, like the regular Cabernet bottling): Dark red with ruby highlights. More subdued but vibrant, youthfully medicinal nose offers scents of cassis, black cherry, licorice, violet and menthol, lifted by exotic spices. A step up in concentration, sweetness and extract from the basic Cabernet, not to mention depth, but less harmonious in the early going and showing much more skin contact and chewy tannins. A fairly powerful style for a wine from Greg Harrington but lively and not at all over the top. And there's nothing in the way of easy sweetness here.

The 243-case 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is a beautiful, elegant Cabernet that incorporates 12% Merlot and comes from the Bacchus, Phinny Hill and Loess vineyards. Aged 22 months in 65% new French oak, it offers tons of toasted bread, espresso roast, lead pencil shavings and dried herbs to go with a core of black cherry and darker currant-like fruits. Medium to full-bodied, seamless, impeccably balanced, and with terrific length, it shows the more streamlined style of the vintage, yet has enough density and depth to reward short-term cellaring, and drink well for two decades or more after that.