Light and clear but extremely garnet. Squished-bug and moldy hay nose, layered in figgy bubble-gum and flat, warm cola. Drearily dank while oozing with sharp buttery warmth, it’s a beautiful bouquet of juxtapositions–half of them lumberjack-sweaty and ripe, the other half North Coast hipster-cru.

Another one of Raj Parr and Peter Stolpman’s collabs, this label needs no introduction to serious wine people. If you can find it, you GET it. If you GET it, you enjoy it. If you don’t GET it, I won’t judge too hard–maybe a little bit–but opening your mind to wines like this can be elevating to your experience.

Glorious thin fruit in the mouth, a full mouth-feel of certain warmth and roundness with barely a tincture of delicate cherry. Brash acid cuts a spritzy path across the tongue, paving the way for more appreciation of the dark cherry flavors which never cloy and just *please* on so many levels right out to the thin tannin. A dark woody lemon-rind brings an almost smoky nuance to the whole package, a bitter grainy chewiness in an otherwise ethereal profile.

Love it or hate it?

2017 COMBE Trousseau Stolpman Vineyards Ballard Canyon SYV SBC 13.0

www.stolpmanvineyards.com