Flourescent pink down to a raw ruby core. Floral blood oozing from bruised briar and that moment the sun shines on wet asphalt–alley gutters temporarily scrubbed, reducing detritus once cheery to heady cinnamon and musk perfume melange.
In the mouth, calm and bright, mild fruit: soprano-taut and invigoratingly happy, turning intense pie-cherry and rose-hips, grating concentration you have no idea where it came from but it screams through, plastering everything in reach with spicy fruit injections and searing the roof with tannin.
There’s a lot of people who won’t get this wine. On one hand it is light and succulent, on another it is brash and unsettling, turn the corner and it is lashing and vehement. The Rhone travels a long way on this one, but the purity and cleanliness is all California. It’s pretty nice stuff.
2016 JOLIE LAIDE Syrah North Coast 12.8
Stephen McConnell 