94 points Wine News: "(blended with 12% merlot, 4% cabernet franc, 3% petit verdot and 3% malbec) Bottled in August 2008, this unfined Opus offers a floral nose of violets, dusty geranium and cassis. On the palate, the wine brims with copious sweet cassis and blueberry and is smooth, rich and luscious with fine-grain tannins. Medium-long, violet-tinged close. Deep and complex even now, this youngster shows great promise and evokes the founders' desire to fashion a wine reminiscent of Bordeaux with sublime Napa fruit. (Mar/Apr/May 2009)"

93+ points Robert Parker: "The 2006 comes across as a bigger, more structured wine than the 2007. The tannins are bolder, more dramatic, and more present. The wine displays impressive depth, not the velvety elegance of the 2007, but is a more muscular wine that begs for 2-3 years of cellaring and should drink well for 20-25 years. (Dec 2009)"

93 points Stephen Tanzer (International Wine Cellar): "(a five-variety Bordeaux blend based on 77% cabernet sauvignon) Saturated deep ruby. Cassis, bitter chocolate and sexy smoky oak on the nose. Dense and sweet but firmly structured, with lovely inner-mouth aromatic quality giving the wine sappy lift. Pure, penetrating flavors of cassis, lead pencil and bitter chocolate, with a sexy oak quality that I can only describe as Mouton-like. This is still quite tightly wound and will need several years of bottle aging to soften up (it won't be released until the fall of this year). "The biggest change here has been our independence," said winemaker Michael Silacci, who took over winemaking responsibilities with the 2004 vintage; previously former partners Mouton-Rothschild and Robert Mondavi were involved in crafting this wine. (May/Jun 2009)"