Bruce Schoenfeld: This wine isn’t as dried out and lifeless as most 1997 Napa Cabernets are today, but it isn’t as profound as the greatest Mondavis, either. Not unlike a Bordeaux in its nuance—but not a first growth, or even one of the better seconds. It’s strange; this is the top bottling from America’s best-known winery in a vintage that was celebrated as one of the best in the history of Napa Valley—the “vintage of the century for California Cabernet Sauvignon,” according to Laube, who rated it 98 points. And the wine is companionable and tasty and still sturdy but somehow… small.