I was quite interested to see how this wine is progressing as it had been quite some time since I last had it. Again, there is no bricking though the color has clearly lightened from the very deep ruby it displayed in its youth. Like the '93, this is impressively complex with a ripe mix of primary and now mostly secondary fruit aromas that are notably floral in character before dissolving into mouth coating, full-bodied and quite powerful flavors that are mouth coating and still focused on the robust, firm, chewy and impressively lingering if noticeably warm finish. This is one of those "lightening rod" wines in that some will like the big-bodied power and chewy structure and others will find it inelegant and borderline rustic. While this wine will live for years, I seriously doubt that the balance will hold and as such, I would suggest drinking it over the next decade as it risks drying out in time. Note that I have had some bottle variation and my scores have ranged from 88 to 90.

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