I had the divine pleasure of meeting Mr. Shinas two years ago and he had heard about me when he did a google search on his wines. I was able to try this wine then, but haven't seen it since.

How should I describe it? Well, first there is a little bit of granularity in it, but that could be from the age. What I get is some deep dark fruits combined with a rich smoke; me and someone else even both thought that we were tasting some aspects of Merlot in this wine. The weight is heavy but the viscosity is still very smooth. The fruit aspects are the blackest that you could get, especially for a wine in this price range. The color is the inkiest purple.

When you taste this wine, you're hit with the smoke and then the fruit, and then everything lets off big, but then cruises out for the next twenty seconds or so.

Yes. As I hold it up to the light, I can see the graininess of the wine.