Medium garnet with barely-bricking edges. Big initial raw-egg morphs gently into a toasted almond marzipan bouquet rich and round but distinctly savory. Gobs of graphite and cedar but the whole package fattens up drastically late-breathing.
It is so beautiful. Part of me wants to call it flabby, but part of me is still lapping at the breathtaking concentration. I own a bunch of these and raved about them a couple years ago. While still virile, and have no nuances of aged cab, a glycerin-ey mid-section has taken hold, playing with bacon-fat and blueberries and will teeter on oxidized within a few years. In the mouth, none of this matters.
Vibrant and wild, toying with a full spectrum of fruit with foundations in dark cherry and prune to notes of bright, sweet strawberry against a complex palette of black tea and pepper with lovely tannins almost from entry balancing the concentration. Not particularly elegant, but not exactly punk-rock either. Serious sweetness envelopes the mouthfeel and it helps you forget some of the things you were worried about in the nose.
2009 WESTERLY Panterra Santa Ynez Valley Santa Barbara Co. 14.5
