Wines like this are the reason you don’t read about spirallingly, ear-splittingly exorbitant First Growth Bordeaux offerings in Wine Taste Weekly. 2008 Parker is a cabernet blend of true First Growth endurance. Such is its wall of tannin that it must not, under any circumstances, be approached shy of twenty years in the cellar. Incredible power of blackcurrant and cassis fruit, with a fragrant violet perfume, underlined by dark chocolate oak, with nuances of black olives and black liquorice, this is a wine of tremendous concentration, with the structural assertiveness to maintain a brilliant line of linear definition, finishing crunchy and precise. The tannin profile is monumental, firm and mouth-evading, yet with a textural finesse that keeps it under consummate control at every instant. Don’t miss one of the greats in the lineage of First Growth when it is unleashed on the world in July.