The 2017 Madrona Ranch soars out of the glass with striking intensity and nuance; it is a wine of seamless beauty and finesse. The Madrona tannins are there, but they are pretty much buried by the luxuriousness of the fruit. Medium in body, gracious and exquisitely beautiful, the 2018 is another rock-star wine in this lineup.

Like the other vintages tasted on this occasion (2016 and 2017), the 2018 Madrona Ranch Proprietary Red is massively concentrated. But what sets it apart from those other great wines is its greater degree of integration and flow. From start to nearly infinite finish, the flavors of ripe cassis, dark chocolate and purple raspberries ease across the full-bodied palate in a seamless, velvety swell of lusciousness, without ever seeming heavy or overdone. Of all the amazing wines I tasted at Abreu this year, this one rises above the others.