Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2002

In this vintage, the combination that showed what I consider the best characteristics of the vintage for Cabernet—rich yet rounded, extracted yet fully evolved, immediately appealing yet full of promise for the future—came from our estate vineyard in Rutherford and two other valley floor vineyards where we have given very close attention to viticulture choices that boost fruit intensity, especially clonal selection and vine density, in recent years. The result is very rewarding to me: an authoritative wine with great staying power but a compelling sweetness of character. Chuck Wagner

TASTING NOTES The rich, dark-ruby color of this wine offers a promise of the depth to come. Aromas and flavors of sweet, fully ripe black currants form the "big heart" of this wine, with notes of mocha/chocolate, black cherry, anise and spice interweaving seamlessly, first in the nose and then more explosively in the mouth. The texture is surprisingly velvety and supple for a wine of this extraction and density, attesting to the fine grain of the tannins and the balance of fruit and oak. The finish holds pure and true for long minutes, the impression of ripe fruit lingering to the end.