The blockbuster, opaque purple-colored 1998 L'Ermita (the finest since the 1995 and 1994) exhibits a full-bodied personality with copious quantities of sweet oak, a boatload of glycerin, and superb blackberry, cassis, and cherry fruit that explodes on the mid-palate and in the finish. The elevated quantities of new oak should become better integrated as the wine ages over the next 15-20 years. This is an exceptionally impressive/expressive wine. Importer: The Rare Wine Co., Sonoma, CA; tel. (707) 996-4484

Full deep ruby. Great brooding nose of black and red fruit liqueur, spices and flowers. Like liquid velvet in the mouth, but with bracing acids giving it a three-dimensional texture. A wine of uncanny chewy depth. Firmly structured and youthfully unevolved, but already quite explosive on the back half. Finishes with major dusty-but-ripe tannins and extraordinary persistence. Late hints of cassis and shoe polish. A great vintage for this wine, in need of at least five or six years of additional bottle aging.

Much less aromatic than the Dofi 1998. Some torrefaction on the nose but masses of extract and rigour on the palate. Long and well balanced with quite remarkable extract. Opened out to minerality on the nose. (JR)