Saturated medium ruby. Nose like a first-growth Bordeaux: raspberry, cassis, violet, lead pencil and baking spices. Utterly suave on entry, then extremely fine-grained in the middle palate. A huge but tightly wound wine, with great penetration on the palate and no sense of excess weight. Juicy and wonderfully long, but the wine's fruit flavors are kept under wrap by strong tannins. Like a Pauillac on steroids. The yield here was reportedly about half a ton per acre. This was aged in 200% new oak, including a second pass through new Darnajou barrels. Extraordinary wine. (ST) 95+

With this wine the Egurens of Rioja fame have hit the mother lode in Toro. The '01 version of Termanthia is outrageously powerful and deep, like a shot to the jaw from Lennox Lewis in his prime. It's maxed out in terms of leather, smoky oak, and depth of fruit. Almost hard to describe, it's so big and mauling. Hold until at least 2008. (MS)

This ambitious red shows plenty of extraction, with ripe fruit and toasty oak fighting through gripping tannins. It's exuberant, but needs time to harmonize and show the full range of its flavors. (TM)