SANTA YNEZ VALLEY | CALIFORNIA | $44
A gorgeous wine. Soft dark berry and purple plum integrated with complex flavors of allspice, cedar, licorice and sage with wafts of orange rind and lavender. Velvet texture, medium to full bodied and very well balanced, combining many disparate qualities as one while leaving each distinctively intact. There’s a pleasant organic soil quality here and floral notes. A garden in spring, this is — perfumed blooms loft above sturdy stems and leaves, given life by fragrant moist earth below. 85% Syrah, 15% Viognier. An excellent wine. (Reviewed 5/4/12)
