If you want a Central Coast wine which is the absolute antithesis of Paso or Washington, this Syrah is your baby. Green and vegetal, a chilly angst rising up out of scorched earth. Hot rocks splashed with cold water. Cedar wood, perfumed and oily, while still dry and adsorbent, the nose crystalline and spicy, ripe EXACTLY where ripeness needs to be, pretty rosy petals gracing all around. There’s a rusticity to it, an almost amateurish funk based on dirty leather and petrichor but running out hazelnut and oak-bark paths. But I’m not actually going Rhone here… There’s a feeling more South-France than anything.

The mouthfeel is–again–a tearing apart of deep gravity and light grace on almost Pinot terms. Ripe to an extent: a sweet cherry cola coats beginning-to-end, but it is borne aloft on spritely thin-ness and sizzling acid. Those burnt ends sneak in to toast the middle, everything light and flowery except it really isn’t. It’s thick and dank, but manages all this with an ethereally low-alcohol body. Tannins of course: bitter chalky icing on this brilliant cake. A true 1% wine, something the vast majority of alleged Syrah fans will not *get*.

2018 CIVILIZATION WINE CO Syrah Ampelos Vyd Santa Rita Hills Santa Barbara Co 13.5

https://civwine.com/