2018 Abreu, Las Posadas, Howell Mountain

All desert island wines by any measure, it’s hard to go wrong with any of these 2018s from Brad Grimes. The 2018 Las Posadas offers a monster bouquet of ripe black fruits, chocolate, graphite, and scorched earth and is dense, full-bodied, and insanely concentrated on the palate. It's a big, monster of a wine yet, the purity of fruit is extraordinary, and it has loads of tannins, perfect balance, and a great finish. I finished my notes with "awesome."

From a slightly cooler vintage, the 2018 Las Posadas Proprietary Red comes across as slightly fresher than the 2017, with notes of sage and bay leaf accenting its blueberry and cassis fruit. But while it's fresher, it appears just as concentrated, with ample richness on the full-bodied palate and a long, velvety textured and tannic finish. Give it a few years—or two decades—in the cellar, depending how mature you like your wines.

The 2018 Las Posadas is a brilliant wine, but it is also one of the most reticent wines in this range. At the same time, the 2018 is a bit light, especially in the mid-palate, relative to the norm here. Production is just one-third of normal, as all smoke-tainted lots were sold off, which among other things, means there is less Malbec in the blend.