Pour vigorously, decant, wait, or cellar for a decade or more. Don’t pop and pour. If you do, you will be punished by vegetal wine loaded with oak. Give it a day or more, though, and the wine changes completely. Cassis, vanilla, and a touch of mint show on the nose. The palate is loaded up front with cassis and plums, adding vanilla, a touch of red fruit, then coffee and a burst of chocolate on the mid-palate, followed by a shift toward brown sugar. Dusty, grippy tannins and silky texture give a great mouth-feel. The profile is fat, but with enough acid zing toward the finish to suggest it will cellar well. Drink with bone-in strip steak. Highly Recommended. 92 points.
WHO: Louis M. Martini
WHAT: Cabernet Sauvignon
WHERE: California, Napa Valley
WHEN: 2010
HOW MUCH: $145