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The bottle seemed in excellent shape and the cork came out easily in one piece. The color is medium red, a bit hazy due to some very fine sediment that couldn't be filtered out, with a little bit of bricking around the rim. The wine was fairly tight when first opened, started to show at its best at around 4+ hours of decanting and is still holding up fine on day 2. The nose is an inviting bouquet of strawberry/blueberry compote, roses and subtler tones of milk chocolate and earth. The same sweet berry fruit is there on the palate along with something that reminds me of liquid cinnamon graham crackers - fairly sweet up front but with an elegant, silky texture and very nice balance. There is still some firm tannin that grips the cheeks a bit but it's nicely woven into the wine. The finish tails off with mild pepper, spices and a hint of bitter grape stem.
Delicious stuff, reminds me a lot of the SW '95 LBV which is probably my all-time favorite LBV tasted to date. This is in a great place for current drinking but I'd guess that it has plenty of stuffing to age over the next decade plus. 92pts, Tasted 2/13