La Lagune 2008

One of the most beautiful wines of the vintage, the dark ruby/purple-colored La Lagune exhibits sweet cassis, camphor, truffle and white chocolate notes presented in a dense, medium to full-bodied, silky textured personality. Filled with purity, finesse, elegance and authoritative flavor intensity, this 2008 is already drinkable and should continue to evolve for 15+ years.

15% Petit Verdot.Very dark and shiny. Fresh, spicy nose. Very sweet start - but a little spindly underneath. No enormous concentration but certainly very winning. Round but a little chewy without great depth of ripe fruit. Perfectly nice but not outstanding. A note of green on the finish. A bit skinny after a deceptively sweet start.

Over the next quarter of a century, it will be interesting to see how this 2008 matches up with La Lagune's prodigious 2005, the finest wine they have ever made. The opaque ruby/purple-tinged 2008 may be the second greatest wine yet produced here. Displaying sweet kirsch, black currant, cedar, smoke, and graphite aromas as well as an impressive thickness and glycerol richness, and a pure, nuanced character (because of the grapes' long hang-time and the small yields), this remarkable effort is long, textured, and impeccably well-balanced. Give it 2-3 years of cellaring and drink it over the following 20-25