Papillon pours a neon crimson and settles into a dark core with a ruby rim—crimson through and through. Aromatically, the wine opens with powerful notes of blackberry, kirsch, coastal sagebrush and evolves into ripe pluot and roasted fig. An enveloping entry of grandeur, the palate reveals a more elegant side of the wine: black plum, blackcurrant, toffee and trace hints of sweet red vermouth, muddled mint, and orange peel. Polished, balanced and with an imagined sweetness, the wine closes with ripe but firm tannin and a mild drying character, capable of converting even the staunchest of Bordeaux-philes.