Col Solare is a partnership between Tuscany’s Marchesi Piero Antinori and Chateau Ste.-Michelle. The 2003 Red Table Wine is a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot aged for 26 months in a mix of French and American oak, 100% new. Production was a minuscule 946 cases. The wine is opaque purple-colored with an expressive perfume of pain grille, cedar, tobacco, spice box, pencil lead, espresso roast, black currants, and blackberry liqueur. This leads to a dense, full-bodied wine with intense, spicy black fruit flavors, excellent integration of oak, tannin, and acidity, and enough structure to mandate 4-6 years of further cellaring. This muscular wine should drink well through 2033. Tel. (509) 588-6806; www.colsolare.com

This wine, though a step up from recent vintages, continues the brand’s reputation as an underperformer. This is a well-made, Cabernet-dominated blend with black cherry, sweet chocolate, soft tannins and a streak of licorice down the middle.——P.G.(12/31/2006)—— 89