Last Tasted 3/94Six hundred cases of this wine will be released in September, and it is well worth the effort to find. The opaque purple color is followed by a wine with a roasted nut character, a result of aging in toasty, new oak. The wine is deeply concentrated, with highly extracted flavors, full body, and a chewy texture. A superb Cabernet Sauvignon with considerable power and impressive elegance, it will benefit from 4-6 years of cellaring and last for 20-25+ years.

Last Tasted 3/94Hess produced one of the stars of this highly maligned vintage, largely because its steep hillside vineyards were not as damaged by the heavy rains as those on the valley floor. This dark ruby/purple-colored wine reveals excellent purity and copious quantities of cassis fruit intertwined with scents of minerals, licorice, and herbs. Medium to full-bodied, with excellent concentration and balance, moderate tannin, and none of the astringent tannin and hollow mid-palate of many 1989s, it should drink well for 10-15 years.

Last Tasted 3/94This was a superb showing for this opaquely purple-colored wine. Still dense, with the essence of jammy black-cherries and vanillin in the bouquet and flavors, the wine displays superb purity in its highly extracted flavors, full body, plenty of glycerin, and a formidable tannin level. This well-balanced, big, rich, concentrated, backward wine needs several more years of cellaring. It should age well for 20-25 years.

This wine possesses a profoundly deep ruby/purple color exhibiting no signs of age. A sweet, jammy, blackcurrant, truffle, licorice, and vanillin-scented nose is youthful as well as expressive. Full-bodied, structured, and rich, with high tannin and equally high levels of fruit, glycerin, and extract, this is an atypically youthful, well-balanced California Cabernet that is just beginning to open and reveal secondary nuances and flavors. Accessible and impressive to drink, it will only get better over the next 5-10 years, and it will keep for another 20 years. The tasting notes for this section are from two single blind tastings, one conducted in May, 1996, in California, and the other in June, 1996, in Baltimore.

This wine possesses a profoundly deep ruby/purple color exhibiting no signs of age. A sweet, jammy, blackcurrant, truffle, licorice, and vanillin-scented nose is youthful as well as expressive. Full-bodied, structured, and rich, with high tannin and equally high levels of fruit, glycerin, and extract, this is an atypically youthful, well-balanced California Cabernet that is just beginning to open and reveal secondary nuances and flavors. Accessible and impressive to drink, it will only get better over the next 5-10 years, and it will keep for another 20 years.The tasting notes for this section are from two single blind tastings, one conducted in May, 1996, in California, and the other in June, 1996, in Baltimore.