2001 Bond Vecina

The saturated purple-colored 2001 Vecina offers a big, sweet bouquet of creosote intermingled with cigar smoke, black currant liqueur, and notions of white chocolate. A massive effort with tremendous flavor intensity, impressive purity, and a blockbuster, tannic finish, this enormous red requires 5-8 years to shed some tannin. It has that uncanny Harlanesque complexity (meaning first-growth Bordeaux complexity combined with Napa ripeness and power) as well as a finish that lasts nearly one full minute. This remarkable effort should hit its prime around 2010, and last for 15-20 years. 94-96 points