Pine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District (Napa Valley) 2002

At age 13, this Pine Ridge Cabernet was still remarkably youthful in appearance, aroma, and taste. It's a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot, 5% Malbec and 3% Cabernet Franc, with a whopping (but nevertheless reasonably well integrated) 14.7% alcohol. Deep garnet/ruby. A fairly strong bouquet of cassis,  kirsch, blueberry, blackberry, with a dash of spice. Full bodied, with a long, slightly hot finish tailing off into sour cherries. After 30 minutes in the decanter, there was still a potent core of tannin but they were silky and did not impede the wine from offering drinking pleasure now. I suspect it would age well for another 7-10 years, but (sadly) this was my last bottle. Grade: 90