1990 (Robert Parker 89): “A blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon and 32% Cabernet Franc, this beautifully packaged, elegant wine offers a complex, fragrant bouquet of spices, herbs, black fruits, and spring flowers. The wine is medium-bodied, with admirable definition, excellent richness, crisp underlying acidity, no obvious new oak, but a subtle, cassis, vanillin component to its flavors, and a stylish, medium-bodied finish. Several additional years in the bottle should result in more aromatic development. If the flavors broaden, this will clearly be an outstanding effort. It is already an impressive wine in a delicate, restrained style.”  
1994 (Robert Parker 90-93): “Smoky, sweet, black and red currant aromas jump from the glass of this intriguing, saturated purple-colored wine. Some new oak is noticeable in the background. The wine's attack exhibits terrific purity of fruit, more acidity than many 1994s, and sweet, ripe tannin, all packed into a tightly wound, medium to full-bodied wine that only hints at its ultimate potential. This is not a large-scaled 1994, but it is a beautifully etched wine with considerable personality. I suspect it will be accessible when released in 1-2 years, but it will benefit from 4-5 years of cellaring. It is unquestionably another 20-year effort from this vintage. Viader's elegant, complex, stylish wines often require more introspection than some of the more boldly-styled blockbusters that emerge from Napa. The objective at Viader is to produce the Cheval Blanc of Napa Valley."