2005 Pride Mountain - Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma/Napa Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon - USA - California - North Coast - Red

($85; includes 4% petit verdot) Good full medium ruby. Crushed black fruits, licorice, sandalwood, tobacco and cocoa powder on the nose. Sweet and silky but juicy, with dark fruit and exotic spice flavors offering lovely inner-mouth aromatic character. This has a distinctly briary mountain berry aspect. The longest of these offerings, with ripe acidity and rather powerful tannins giving it a big structure.

The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot) is more backward, but promising. It exhibits an inky/blue/purple color as well as notes of lead pencil shavings, toasty oak, charcoal, sweet roasted herbs, and background wood. Rich, full-bodied, and moderately tannic, it will benefit from 1-3 years of bottle age, and should last for 15+.

Rich and complex, brimming with dense, opulent yet elegant layers of mocha, black cherry, blackberry and wild berry fruit that's pure, focused, deep and persistent, ending with mouthcoating flavors and ripe, fleshy tannins.