Stunning. This was a mindbendingly good wine. It started out with a fantastic nose. Loam and soil, spice and earth, then black cherries and crushed violets - deep, dark and wonderful stuff. The palate was amazing as well. The archetypal iron fist in a velvet glove, it had lovely tones of violets and peppery spice and dark cherries, all showing a stunning purity of expression. There was such strength too, with an inexorable length on the finish, where rose petals, earth and dried spices just lingered and lingered on a bed of chewy, every so-slightly powdery tannins. Wow. This was such a complete wine. For all its power and depth, it was actually its purity that floored me. It had depth and power aplenty, yet without a semblance of heaviness. This was not thick and voluptuous like a Gaja, but a lot more filigreed and lacy and elegant - almost ethereal, with sweet florals and spice floating like a halo around a superbly integrated core of crystalline dark fruit - yet with a real grip and sinew deeply woven into a lithe, translucent frame. Beguiling stuff. Mindblowingly good, and it still has decades ahead of it yet. 96+

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