2017 Armada Vineyard Syrah

Bright red-ruby. Dark scents of blackberry, black pepper, violet and smoked meat; blacker than the 2016. Intense, penetrating, juicy and tight, offering a faint citrus peel accent to its flavors of dark berries, minerals, violet, pepper and animal fur. Boasts lovely density and concentration without weight, thanks to an impression of harmonious acidity and high notes of violet and minerals. This beauty carries its firm core of dark berry fruit through a firm, rising, suavely tannic, savory back end, saturating the palate without leaving any impression of weight. A superb showing: this Syrah wine can be tasted with great pleasure today but should gain in complexity and pliancy with another four or five years of cellaring. I love the balance of salinity, gaminess, fruit and minerality.

The 2017 Syrah Armada Vineyard bursts out of the glass with complex and expressive aromas of blackberry, black tea, savory and umami tones of crushed black pepper, grilled meat and dried lilac and lavender. Medium to full-bodied, the wine is elegant and seamless on the palate, unfolding beautifully with precision and intention, offering up instant gratification in youth. The wine unfolds its wings across the mid-palate and takes flight, leading to the elongated and continually evolving finish, which grows in complexity and amplitude in the mouth. The 2017 is more approachable in youth than the 2016 vintage of the same bottling. If you enjoy wines in their youth, this vintage is a no-brainer. Only 613 cases were produced.

The Armada Vineyard Syrah always reminds me of the Horsepower releases, as it’s a more masculine, earthy style of Syrah. Deep plum/purple-colored with an incredible bouquet of smoked plum, blackcurrants, tobacco, peppered meat, and violets, the 2017 hits the palate with full-bodied richness and depth, building structure and tannins, moderate acidity, and a great finish. It’s another wine from Baron that packs incredible richness and depth yet still just glides across the palate with no sensation of weight or heaviness. It shows the more rounded, approachable style of the vintage and will keep for 20 years or more. The 2017s from Christophe Baron show the more elegant, balanced style of the vintage nicely while still showing plenty of depth and concentration. These are singular, gorgeous wines that could come from nowhere else.