Inglenook, Reserve Merlot, Napa Valley

I bought a few Inglenooks several years ago for a song and this is sadly the last of the lot. The first bottle was less than impressive, in fact I found it rather pedestrian. A completely different story here, however. It has that classic old red wine nose: stewed fruit, green pepper, a bit of spice. The palate, however, is gangbusters: slightly stewed fruit but oodles of spice and plenty of swagger. Yowza. It's great when the last bottle is …

Cork in great shape. Nose showing alcohol and not much fruit. Started a bit mild with not much interesting, then gained in intensity and became very pleasing.

My lovely wife seemed to have a better time with this than did I, the way she was sucking it down (but that could have been a product of the day she had at work). The cork was a disaster, but no apparent oxidation. The nose was all tart cherry and a bit of mocha and heat. On the palate that tart cherry started to scream and yell with not much to back her up. I guess this was like …