These wines are so incredibly flowery on intake. It’s rather shocking. It’s like young Cote Rotie–but on a Cotes du Rhone budget. And I keep asking myself if it’s something psychological, like, is it because woman-winemaker, or because the labels are beautifully nature-inspired? The first second you cram your nose into any of these, the first impulse is just flat-out shocking flowery-ness. And the wines from the male-half of the winery do not show this instinct NEARLY to this extent. Flowery, buttery, sweet nuances blasting to the fore-front before anything else takes grip. A second whiff shows deep, sultry oak and ripe berry, but all wrapped around gorgeous flower-arrangement.
Tasting it produces similar essence: bright, beautiful, tight cherry and firm blackberry in a not-insulting concentration or molar-aching sweetness, the fruit thinning perfectly around shards of acid delightfully melded down into the body. It’s sharp. It’s high-note. Everything balanced in ways difficult to describe. Mid-palate, structure brings in smoky harshness but nothing takes away from the fruit. Tannins soft and agreeable, a mineralific grip folding in gently on finish: a wine drinking rather well and probably has a good decade on it.
2021 BOLT TO Syrah Santa Rita Hills Santa Barbara County 14.0
Stephen McConnell 