The flagship 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon checks in as 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Petit Verdot brought up in 40% new French oak. With an essence of Cabernet like character in its darker currants, green tobacco, cedar, graphite, and floral aromas and flavors, this gorgeous wine is full-bodied and has bright yet integrated acidity, polished tannins, and a great, great finish. It's just gorgeously put together and a magical, flawless wine. It's going to take a decade to hit maturity but will evolve for 40-50 years in cold cellars. It is as good as it gets in classic, age-worthy Cabernet Sauvignon!

The 2018 Dominus is wild and exotic from the first taste. Lifted aromatics make a strong opening impression. There is something exuberant about the 2018 that is hard to describe. The 2018 is not a huge Dominus, nor is it massively structured, but the intensity of the flavors is remarkable just the same. Dark raspberry, spice, leather and cedar are some of the many notes that open over time.

This is a very serene and quietly confident wine that dovetails with the vintages overall terroir-driven profile. Settling in for the long haul, with the fruit still showing well though its starting to cede ground to the immense structure, this is driven by a humus and cast iron side in the end. Reveals richness and drive, with a wide range of tobacco, savory and alder accents. When the fruit remerges fully after cellaring, this will be every bit the benchmark. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. -- Non-blind Dominus retrospective (August 2022). Best from 2024 through 2040. 4,000 cases made.