The winery’s Affinity bottling has had mixed results over the years, but this is one of their best, right up there with the 2007. It’s a beautiful wine, absolutely dry, tannic, smooth and complex in black currant flavor. A bright streak of acidity provides wonderful balance, and should help the wine to age through at least 2019.

The 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Affinity bursts from the glass with an exciting array of dark red berries flowers licorice and sweet spices. Floral notes reappear on the finish adding brightness and lift. This gorgeous mid-weight Cabernet Sauvignon should continue to drink beautifully for at least a handful of years. In 2009 the blend is 86% Cabernet Sauvignon 6% Petit Verdot 5% Merlot 2% Malbec and 1% Cabernet Franc. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2017.

Grown in the foothills of Mount George, this is mostly cabernet sauvignon (82 percent) with petit verdot, merlot and small amounts of franc and malbec. It’s a broad, richly oaked wine, packed with cherry-scented fruit holding robust tannins. Unyielding for now, this needs two or three years for the tannins to mellow.

Showing accents of root beer, briar and a bare bit of leather to its central themes of well-ripened cassis and black cherries, this very solid, somewhat stiffly structured young wine is presently bound in grippy, tongue-drying tannins. It is fairly stern and far from friendly just now, but it has the fruity center of a Cabernet that will age well, and we expect that it will not reach its best until a decade has passed.