An interesting experiment.  Beautiful colour and clarity, steely nose with round, ripe fruit.  The initial minerality blows off into just plain–rather boring–glyceriney ripeness.  Decent whallop of oak.  Medium acids and decent tannins.  Really just quite boring though.  A decent wine–nothing shocking, nothing mind-blowing.  Awesome with a pork tenderloin roast under cherry and blackberry reduction with twice-baked cheesy penne and al-dente broccolini.  If I had to play mix-n-match, I’d say a 12$ third-growth BDX meets paso ripeness.  All of the flabbiness of Paso cab–and all the boringness of press-wine from the low-lands–and without the acid.  An awesome every-day food-wine, just nothing wonderful going on.  14-7 but the AL is totally in check.  Comes through a bit on the nose but nothing out-of-balance.  The bouquet is just so ripe, round and boring.  Probably something which cellared well will stand up quite nicely for another ten years.  Price-point isn’t bad either.  It kinda has all the things Paso-wonks need in a party-quaffer “Oh, man, this is YUMMY” and still has a touch of finesse which makes it great dinner-wine.  A totally serviceable cab.  Am I marking this wine down because it is boring?  Yes.  Am I marking this wine up because it is solid and balanced and utilitarian?  Yes.  There’s just nothing exemplary in it.  14-7   ♦