The 2001 Reserve Claret's color looks more like ink than a dry red wine. Spectacular aromas of roasted espresso, blackberries, creme de cassis, and chocolate soar from the glass of this incredibly full bodied, ripe 2001. It represents the essence of wine. Thick, juicy, and impeccably well balanced, it has 50+ seconds of persistence. There is not a hard edge to be found. While it does possess tremendously high tannins, they are not apparent because of the extravagant fruit and richness. An amazing effort!

Deep Ruby-Red. Knockout nose combines roasted black raspberry, cassis, espresso & bitter chocolate. Sweet, fat and deep, with extravagantly rich, seamless flavors of dark berries and chocolate. Not as sweet as the Mountaintop merlot but even larger scaled. The finish shows more obvious cabernet tannins and considerable sweet oak, but has more than enough powerful, palate staining fruit. As a potential purchase, this is a no-brainer for collectors who can find and afford it.