Obliterating barnyard bottle-funk on initial pour, a shitty streak causing many upturned eyebrows of HOLY SHIT at the table. It blows off quickly, revealing a quite juicy, candied, almost Jolly-Rancher sort of bubbly fruit, hi-noted and cheery, and with more air morphs back toward earthy barnyard reduction: tapenade and wet linen, smoky briar and dark cherry, muddy puddle and cardboard. Not quite sure I have witnessed a wine go more Boom-Boom-Boom in a half-hour of glass-time.

Multiple-personalities aside in bouquet, you can’t wait to taste it. Where will it land? How will it fit in? Strained and sinew-y on the palate. Taut rubber-band and spicy cherry control the entry. Ripe beyond MANY of the Grenache’s I sample, it never goes flabby: a dry, mineralific core lightens and brightens the mouth-feel, and there is a firm handshake of concentrated berry joining the dried-blood savory of the entry with the sharp briary rasp of the finish.

This is pretty amazing Grenache–prodded and poked by small quantities of Mourvedre and Syrah–in a blend of nearly insignificant quantities to consider actual *GSM*. I mean–you don’t even have to state blending amounts like this on the label, legally. And do they add? This thing carries the *Grenache* flag so highly–albeit a slately, churningly-yummy Sonoma version–I’m wondering WHY the bulking up of additional ingredients. I’m guessing it needed tannin, while although the Grenache carries trademark qualities start-to-finish, dirty pepper and fruit more ruby than garnet justify the bits blended. It finishes round and full–a bit alcoholic–lively tannin coming from *somewhere*. But you know where it came from. Find this wine.

Like every UNTI I have tasted, this is a brilliant wine, deserving every speck of your attention. They don’t pay me to say that.

2013 UNTI VINEYARDS GR/SY/MV 80/10/10 Dry Creek Valley Sonoma 14.8

https://www.untivineyards.com/