Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Cabernet Sauvignon 1999

Rich and harmonious, offering a bright, supple core of cherry, currant, plum and spice flavors that turns smooth and silky before the fine tannins kick in. Tempting to drink now for all its fresh, young flavors, but has the depth and intensity to go through the decade. Try around 1996.

Medium ruby. Welcoming aromas of black raspberry, chocolate and sexy oak. Lush, layered and sweet, with superb energy and depth to the black raspberry and bitter chocolate flavors. The longest on the aftertaste of these 2004 cabernets, finishing with very suave tannins and lovely aromatic persistence.

The dark ruby/purple-colored 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve exhibits a sweet, Bordeaux-influenced bouquet of tobacco, cedar wood, spice box, and black currants. It is moderately tannic, medium-bodied, and firm in the finish. Patience will be required. The cooler growing climate is clearly evident when tasting this wine. Anticipated maturity: 2005ndash;2014.

Opaque dark reddish purple color. Moderately full-bodied. Highly extracted. Quite tannic. Toasted oak, plums, cassis, pepper. Toasty oak and black fruit aromas. Tons of chewy black Cabernet fruit with solid dry tannins through the finish. Assertive and structured, this should do well in the cellar.

A leathery, intensely oaky wine, with a lovely cherry component in the nose. Full-bodied, intense palate, with a full dose of drying tannins, this wine needs time, as Beringer Private Reserves always do.

Laurie Hook blended this wine from a collection of seven vineyards, the majority coming from Howell Mountainrsquo;s Bancroft Ranch and Steinhauer sites (70 percent). The power and dark extract of that mountain fruit are plumped up by juicier notes of plums and fat blackberries, all of it wrapped in the char of oak. A potent vintage of Private Reserve, this is built to age ten years or more.

Showing hints of maturity, with a complex array of cedar, currant, dried cherry and anise flavors that turn supple and firm up nicely on the finish. Drink now through 2009. Tasted twice, with consistent notes.