Ulysses - Napa Valley 2015

Ulysses - Napa Valley 2015

It is not as expressive as the 2012—it is a bit more backward—but it is a more serious wine in many ways

this brilliant effort is one of the greatest wines of the 2013 vintage

and a full-bodied

weight and power to the imposingly scaled flavors that display almost painful intensity on the driving

composed of both fruity (candied orange peel

its bright demeanor makes its fruit lifted and drives the medley of flavors home

of Gaja's three single-vineyard expressions

The palate is very harmonious

Here the wood and menthol influences are a good deal less subtle and while they don't dominate the even spicier and slightly riper liqueur-like cassis

Maybe it will surprise us in the end

weight and power to the medium weight plus flavors that brim with mouth coating dry extract that buffers well the firm tannic spine on the strikingly long finish

precise and driving medium-bodied flavors that culminate in a moderately austere and gorgeously sustained finale