La Muse, Vérité Winery 2012

The 2012 La Muse, which is 85% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 4% Malbec, is a smaller cuvée of 1,840 cases. The wine has plenty of spice box, cedar wood, Christmas fruitcake and Asian plum sauce, along with black cherry and blackcurrant fruit. Ripe, round, full-bodied and opulent, this is a wine that can be drunk now or cellared for another three decades. Interestingly, the alcohol levels are not all that high in any of these wines, with most of them rarely exceeding 14.3%.

The 2012 La Muse, a blend of 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec from Bennett Valley, Alexander Valley, Chalk Hill and Knights Valley, reveals wonderful sucrosity along with a sexy, up-front perfume of plums, graphite, licorice, Christmas fruitcake, kirsch, black currants and blackberries. This big, full-bodied, opulently-styled wine will probably be the easiest to drink early on, although it certainly needs at least 5 years in the bottle to reach its peak. It should keep for 25+ years.