1997 Ravenswood Pickberry - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Mountain (10/26/2014)
No idea what to make of this. Ripest Pickberry I’ve ever had by a mile. Big and hot and primary still. But great acid, lots of skin tannins in balance with the loads of mildly sweet but not pruney fruit, black, dark fruit, provencal herbs, licorice, chocolate. A faint streak of green shows at times, but it’s subtle. Big, dark, balanced, hot, ripe wine. Opened for three days and, remarkably, didn’t show a hint of VA development by day 3 and generally improved over the 3 days - and I rarely find wines improve on day 2, let alone day 3. This needs years, if not decades.