2006 Kobalt - Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon - USA - California - Napa - Napa Valley - Red

($90; includes 3% petit verdot and 2% malbec) Deep, bright, saturated ruby. Sexy aromas of black raspberry, tobacco, chocolate and smoky oak. A fat, sexy fruit bomb of a cabernet, with a dominant flavor of black cherry. Mostly from late-ripening vines in the cool Coombsville area. In fact, at the time of a two-day heat spike in mid-September, said winemaker Mark Herold, the grapes were still at just 22o Brix, and the harvest ultimately took place mostly during the third week of October. Finishes with substantial ripe tannins.

A more masculine, tannic, structured offering is the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. Aromas of flowers, black raspberries, and blackberries are followed by a rich, full-bodied, big, concentrated wine that can stand up to the tannic ferocity. Give it 3-4 years of cellaring, and drink it over the next 20 years.

Firm and structured, showing a tight band of cedary- and creamy-oak flavors, chewy tannins and an extracted core of earthy currant, mineral and blackberry fruit where the tannins definitely hold the upper hand. Needs time or aeration.

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