Medium-dark ruby, slightly staining.  This thing smells like Merlot.  Merlot and baby-diapers.  Fat and ripe, with hardcore cellar-nuances.  An overwhelming cassis attempts to overwhelm the incredible ripeness of the black-cherry fruit border-lining on Maraschino.   Rich and full, but dull and dangerously teetering on oxidized.  Not-particularly-clean cellar issues give an erstwhile homeyness to the fabulous vanilla, deep forest humus and background AL.  Instantly mouth-filling, the acid an tannin take off early in this one, inundating you with the reminder this is indeed Medoc.  The smokey, tarry, wet-leather, almost mildew-ey fruit puts up a good fight against the bright structure and finally fails in a finish which is thinly-fruited, but not unbalanced.  I would never call this wine ‘watery’, the garden-hose cellar-issues are its only fault.  2011 Ch de Benesse Bordeaux Medoc  13-5   ♦