The 2000 Château Kirwan is fully mature and drinking nicely, yet certainly has plenty of life ahead of it. Lots of classic darker currant fruits as well as cedar pencil, green tobacco, spice, and chocolate all emerge from the glass, and it's a rich, powerful, mouth-filling Margaux that has ripe tannins, good overall balance, and outstanding length. It has another decade of prime drinking and, I suspect, a gradual decline after that.

Kirwan's 2000 is a full-bodied, dense, chewy, backward, muscular powerhouse (atypical for a wine from this appellation). The opaque black/purple color is followed by a chewy, concentrated, dense, long, persistent effort with terrific ripeness as well as copious aromas and flavors of cassis, new wood, licorice, and tar. If more nuances emerge, it will merit an even higher score. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2023.

Still somewhat tannic but very much in the style that Kirwan has favored over recent vintages, this is a full-bodied, muscular, powerhouse effort. The wine still has a dense ruby/purple color, with loads of blackberries, cassis, and some noticeable new oak still lingering in the background. Powerful, rich, and full, this wine needs another 2-3 years of cellaring and should age nicely for another 20 years.

Full ruby color. Vibrant, deep aromas of cassis, blackberry, minerals, licorice and smoky oak. Large-scaled and impressively rich in the mouth; chewy and very concentrated. A rather powerfully structured, nicely delineated wine that should be long-lived. Another Margaux chateau that has improved dramatically over the last few years.