2009 Vintage

93-95 Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar May/June 2011
Opaque ruby. Red- and blackcurrant, licorice, pipe tobacco and spices on the highly aromatic nose. Then ripe and sweet in the mouth, with excellent definition and lift to the red berry, cherry and spicecake flavors. Finishes with sweet, harmonious tannins and lovely persistence. Showing a lot of energy right now; Ramey says that this will put on weight and gain a darker character and more power by this time next year.

2008 Vintage

92 Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar May/June 2011
Bright purple. Livelier and more red-fruity than the Napa Valley bottling, displaying redcurrant, cherry and floral scents along with notes of pipe tobacco and dried rose. Juicy, penetrating red and dark berry flavors show impressive purity and vivacity and pick up a spicy quality with air. Taut and linear on the fat-free finish, which lingers with excellent tenacity. This has picked up a lot of energy and high notes since I saw it last year, when it seemed much darker in character.

92-94 Robert M. Parker Jr.'s The Wine Advocate December 2010
The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Annum also improved dramatically from last year. Deep, sweet black currant, blackberry, camphor, truffle and graphite aromas jump from the glass of this full-bodied effort. With additional texture and layers as well as a sweet inner core of tannin backed up by extraordinary fruit, depth and glycerin, it should drink well for 15-20 years.

93 Wine Spectator Insider, September 21, 2011
Very tight, dense and backward, packing lots of fruit and tannins. The up-front flavors, built around dried currant, mineral, graph¬ite, camphor and cedar, are slow to unfold, showing touches of loamy earth and tobacco on the finish. Best from 2013 through 2024.

92 California Grapevine. Vol. 37, No. 6, December 2011-January 2012
Medium-dark to dark ruby; attractive, intense, cedary, spicy, dark plum, cassis, and sweet black cherry fruit aroma with a hint of mocha; full body; big, dense, extracted, toasty, black cherry and blackberry flavors with notes of graphite and dark chocolate; full tannin; lingering aftertaste. Shows impressive fruit though needs some bottle aging to help resolve the prominent tannin. Very highly recommended.

2007 Vintage

95 Robert M. Parker Jr.'s The Wine Advocate December 2010
From high on Diamond Mountain, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Annum exhibits an inky/blue/purple color as well as a smoky barbecue note in its creme de cassis, blackberry, licorice and camphor-dominated aromatics. This powerful, rich, stunningly concentrated 2007 will benefit from another 2-4 years of bottle age and should drink well for 20-25 years thereafter.

95 Wine Spectator August 31, 2010
A bold, rich, expansive style, offering tiers of opulent blackberry and wild berry flavors, with touches of black and red licorice and a notable rustic hot brick wall earthiness, all of it dense, focused, complex and concentrated. Ends with a long, persistent finish. Drink now through 2020.

89 California Grapevine. Vol. 36, No. 6, December 2010-January 2011
Medium-dark ruby; attractive; big, intense, cedary, black cherry fruit aroma with notes of clay and graphite; full body; big; intense, concentrated, cedary, currant and dark cherry fruit flavors; full tannin; rough, slightly chalky finish; lingering aftertaste. Highly recommended.

2006 Vintage

93 Robert M. Parker Jr.’s The Wine Advocate, December 2008, Issue 180
The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Annum (96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% mixed Bordeaux varietals) exhibits aromas of chocolate, cassis, incense, and flowers as well as a distinctive minerality/earthiness, full-bodied power, and a dense, layered mouthfeel.  It should easily keep for 25+ years.

90 (one puff) Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine, Volume 33 Issue 10: August 2009
High ripeness is met by serious intent in this wonderfully rich, maximally extracted Cabernet, and, if somewhat sprawling and fairly crude in its youth, the wine wants for nothing in the way of fruity depth and sheer power. It runs afoul of grippy finishing tannins and flaring heat and therein finds its limits, but, at the end, its gifts of rich oak and lavish fruit persist and make its sins easy enough to forgive.