With Hart, Sean and Tabs.

This was the wine of the night for me.
PF gifted this to me a few years ago. The Albans were THE OGs of planting Rhône varietals in the US, and this is supposed to be a rare wine (despite the average price tag).

In the glass: deep red with significant purple. Full bodied.

On the nose: fresh off the bottle, this is a pungent nose with notes of bloody iron, herbal, and animalistic funk. This was a heavy wine, with high alcohol.

As the wine breathed, the overwhelming bloody animalistic notes dissipated significantly to become in balance with the fruits – this was some sorta dark berries and plums, couple with a savory olive note.

On the palate: this is powerful and full bodied with high alcohol. I wish the alcohol was more, managed. This was big, punchy, concentrated. Expectedly high acidity, and unexpectedly palatable tannins for such a young Syrah.

I liked this much better than the next Syrah for 2 reasons:
1) this is a far more complex wine
2) there is a leanness to the wine, in spite of being a BIG fruit driven wine. There is a certain finesse required to achieve this.

That said, I crave syrahs that are much more delicate. This is huge and punchy.