Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) 1996

Very fine, maturing nicely, but still improving. Great color. Still a relatively deep, very pretty purple at the core but shading to brick at the rim. Relatively modest nose, but very typical. Dark fruit, leather, and cigar box. Black cherries, dried currants. lead pencil shavings, sage and oriental spices, tar and tobacco on the palate. Finishes with a fairly strong tannic grip, suggesting it can improve for several more years.