Deep garnet with considerably bricking edges.  Clear and bright.  Generous funk and stemmy crushed-weed intro but otherwise clean and prescribed.  Generous and interesting, but without delusions of grandeur or anything overtly compelling.  Fat, egg-white viscosity plumps up a musty black cherry.  Oak-leaf tea and Grape Crush.  I’m unfairly making this wine sound bad.  Smelling incredibly lush, ripe and round, dense and aged–but at the same time *safe*.  In the mouth, sweet and lovely.  Really: there is nothing to dislike.  Just pure nectar.  Interestingly, last night’s Forman was more ruby and dense–this one is amber and shows brighter and less aged.  Odd comparison, I know–just an observation.  Apples and oranges.  Vibrant and less dull than you expect.  A mint explosion and fruit showing a definite pruney touch of age.  Gritty gun-powder graphite earthiness balances the supple sweetness.  Yes, I’ve used that word twice.  The lush fruit and patina combine into a definite elixir to make the medicine go down.  Drying but not harsh.  Tannins sweet and leathery–never obscuring or bitter.  Everything is polished start-to-finish.  More of that oak-leaf tincture surfaces late-finish just as the last of the Everlasting Gobstopper fruit is fading.  This is a great wine.

2003 CONN CREEK Anthology Napa Valley 64/16/14/4/2 Cab/CF/ME/Bec/PV  14.3

http://www.conncreek.com