($55) Deep ruby-red. Brooding aromas of medicinal black fruits, menthol, flint and crushed rocks. Rich and chewy if a bit aggressive and unrefined. There's an enticing coolness to the wine's black fruit and licorice flavors, and yet there is also lovely sweetness here. Finishes with outsized, tongue-parching tannins that call for at least a year or two of bottle aging.

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A wine of exceptional intensity, the 2004 Syrah Lauterbach, from a cooler, north-facing Russian River site farmed by Lee Martinelli, reveals superb concentration along with hints of fruitcake, cedar, blackberries, cassis, pepper, and incense. This 275-case cuvee is complex, lush, heady, and best drunk over the next 5-7 years.

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