Chateau Rollat is a Washington winery with very French aspirations. They make three Bordeaux style blends, a regular, one with a woman's name which I think has a higher percentage of merlot, and this one which IIRC is the highest priced at around $50-55. The winemaker, or is he just a consultant, is a Frenchman with a long prior association with one of the first growths--Latour, I think. But you get the picture: we were set up for high expectations.
Unfortunately, we weren't rewarded. It's possible that the wine's just in a dumb state now and the problem here is just us choosing the wrong time to open this, but what we found was a wine almost unnaturally dry and restrained for a ripe year new world wine while lacking the complexity and brightness of its old world model. On the palate, dull plum and tobacco notes. A bit of green olive and dirt on the finish, weighed down where the acidity should have been. Gritty tannins left the last impression. I have another bottle I'll open years from now, but I won't be expecting a lot.