Everyone knows Carignane is my back-pocket variety. Once the largest-planted variety in France and once the largest-planted variety in California, now relegated to odd, *I can’t pronounce that* weird also-ran but WHY was it so popular at one time? The answer is obvious: It makes GREAT wine. Here we have a producer I am freshly familiar with, and the product stands for itself: it makes great wine. Wine able to morph the boundary between deep, lavish red concentration and still complete a scenario where bright, defined juice manifests itself into perfection. No other variety fills the yin-and-yang quite as seamlessly–except Syrah perhaps–between plump enjoyment and structured fulfillment.

This one is beautiful in the nose, with a bit of oak polishing the vibrant fruit into peaty, briary nuances nothing else can replicate easily. On the palate, a perfection of berry glances down on easy structure and eloquent definition where dusty abrasiveness solidifies itself on luscious fruit. But transparency and herbasceousness gloms onto distinct acerbic indications in a way most New World wines fail. Invigorating and interesting, nothing out-of-place or awry, it’s an intelligent wine: glorious from start-to-finish. I love what they’ve done here: seamless and balanced, with a bristly aggravation driving everything ripely home. It’s literally perfection, and I would have never guessed 15+.

2019 PETERSON Carignane Bradford Mountain Dry Creek Valley Sonoma Co. 15.1

https://www.petersonwinery.com/