Clear bright ruby with wide amber edges. Lovely, wonderful funk blows off to rich wet leather–sweaty, even–and reveals deep black-currant fruit and root-beer. Rich and round in the nose, decrying its fairly thin color. I’ve tasted a few Gilroy wines. Troublingly enough, they all had issues with garlic and pickles. This suffers no such ill. This could be a Pinot. It is that nuanced and balanced and layered with interesting bits. It is so refreshing when Rhone varieties exemplify something of a more Burgundian nature. Too much time–and FAR too many wine dollars–are spent on Syrah and Grenache crafted in a style overblown by all standards, far too ripe and fat, over-extracted and dense, only moronically paired with food–a meal in THEMSELVES–and an instant buzz. Hey, to each their own: if you want wines you can’t suck between the gap in your front teeth and get you drunkie-poo with your girlfriends or your pseudo-wine-dork pals on the first glass, knock yourself out. I’ll just sit over here and judge. Meanwhile, apart from your tourist-plonk-reality, I have a real wine in my glass. In the mouth, concentrated and round, with a rough edge seamlessly woven into even the entry. I expect my Grenaches to be a little rough… old-worldy… Even in a beautifully balanced and supple example, I don’t particularly want them “elegant”. They need shit going on in them and this one HAS IT. A beautiful acidity toys with the rich fruit and even sweetness. See, now there is the difference between last night’s 2010 and tonight’s 2010. A wine cloying, fat and disgusting with actual sweetness and a wine so balanced, so ripe, so perfectly hitting on all cylinders it is sweet nectar on the palate. Deep, bright cherry, Mexican cola, a shard of briar and all packed in with bright, viable tannin. This is a 15$ wine. This is my new favorite Grenache. Fuck your Santa Barbara 45$ 15-8’s and Paso 30$ 16-5’s. I know Randall didn’t set out to create an opus here, but this is a STUNNING wine. 13-1 ♦♦♦
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