Raymond Sommelier Collection 2006

Classic Raymond, a soft, elegant Cabernet the equal of wines costing much more. With a smooth, velvety mouthfeel, it has flavors of blackberries, coffee, herbs and sweet new oak, and finishes very dry. Keep it for a year or two and it will be better.

Here's an intense, nervy young Cab that impresses for its powerful oak and cassis flavors. It's a little sharp now, with an acidic jamminess and tea-like tannic structure that suggests moderate aging capability. Stash it until 2008, then open for a couple of years.

Other wineries come and go. Raymond remains, offering solid Napa Valley Cab at a fair price. The '05 Reserve calls to mind the very fine 2000, but actually costs less. It's a dry, elegantly structured wine, rich in sweet fine tannins, and offering up complex, delicious flavors of freshly picked ripe blackberries, spicy cassis, baked cherry pie and smoky oak. Drink now through 2015.

Sleek, rich and elegant, with pretty, well-defined currant, black cherry, anise, earth and hazelnut flavors, firming up on the finish where the tannins are sweet and firm. Drink now through 2010.

Formidable, but rounding out nicely at this tasting. The big tannins are settling in, allowing the generous fruit of this excellent Napa vintage to emerge. Blackcurrant and plum, with crème de cassis coming from the harmonious marriage of fruit and oak. Herbal notes from the dusty tannins offer grip and complexity.

A beautiful Cabernet. Pretty tannic now, so if you drink, decant, and have with rich, oily meats and cheeses. But the heart of black cherries, and cassis, and the overall balance, enable this wine to develop over the next 6-8 years.

Grown principally at Raymond's Zinfandel Lane vineyard, this is totally tannic right now and will need lots of cellar time to evolve. The fruit is firm and ripe, a thin red line of cherry flavor surrounded by the fleshy bulk of tannin, but it's not out of balance, just young. This should expand into something rich and heady with age.