2011 The Tribe Vineyard Syrah

The 2011 Syrah The Tribe Vineyard, which comes from a vineyard close to the En Chamberlin Vineyard, offers a classic northern Rhone-like profile of blackberry and black currant fruits, beef blood, iron, liquid mineral and smoked meat. Full-bodied, layered, and fabulously concentrated, with considerable back-end structure, this awesome effort will drink well for over 15 years. I was blown away by these new releases from Christophe Baron and Elizabeth Bourcier last year when I tasted them from barrel, and I’m thrilled (and relieved) to see them show so well from bottle this go-round. These are some of the most exciting new releases out there today. In addition, their 2012s look even better. As I suggested last year, this is one mailing list spot you don’t want to pass up. Tel. (509) 526-1515; www.horsepowervineyards.com