I last tasted the 2011 Forman cabernet sauvignon back in the late spring of 2014 and liked the wine very much. It is typically ripe for this bottling these days, coming in at 14.5 percent, as Ric decided to wait out the rains that came in early September and pick on the back half of the harvest season. It would have been interesting to see what he might have made if he picked the grapes early, as they were probably in that twenty-two or twenty-three Brix range at that point, which was where he picked his cabernet in his first few vintages at Sterling all those years ago. In any case, at age seven, the wine is evolving very gracefully and now offers up a beautifully precise bouquet of sweet dark berries, cassis, cigar wrapper, dark soil tones, a hint of currant leaf, discreet new wood and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and quite light on its feet, with a lovely core, fine complexity and soil signature, moderate, suave tannins and a long, focused and very well-balanced finish. I have liked this vintage since day one and the wine is evolving very well indeed. It still needs a few more years in the cellar to really start to drink well, but it will not be a long wait!