Impenetrable black ruby. Heavy sediment. Just the slightest imagination of amber at edges–really no bricking at all, or at least the color is so dense it is unnoticeable. Big rosy beautiful delicate fruit delivered by a steam-engine of power, a near-perfect unimaginably-delectable bouquet of spicy musk, weedy eucalyptus and a note of flat-out cheese mold and alcoholic back-bite. So ridiculously perfect in the nose you hesitate to even drink it. Why risk it?
But you have to. In the mouth, slightly salty attack turns all the savory rhubarb and meat-pie brilliance into a raspy mineralific core, buoyed by still-sparkling acidity and tannins NOT going anywhere. MY GOD what a stupidly-good wine. Find any of these if you possibly can.
It has been suggested this wine is an infant, but I think it is near-peak. Even showing no brick, there is a vegetal-cardboard note to the nose I would not want to progress. And this bottle has near-perfect provenance. Fruit thins significantly in the finish, leaving clear meagerness.
2006 PAX Syrah ‘Sonoma Hillsides’ Russian River Valley Sonoma Co 14.4
Stephen McConnell 