2007 Linne Calodo Rising Tides

(45% syrah, 35% grenache and 20% mourvedre) Bright red. Black raspberry and cherry on the nose, with complicating notes of potpourri, licorice and smoky minerals. Weighty dark fruit flavors stain the palate and turn more tangy with aeration. The finish is broad, sweet and very long, with a strong echo of sappy dark berries. This was the slowest to open of this group, and should benefit from another four or five years of patience.

The deeper-colored 2007 Rising Tides (44% Syrah, 35% Grenache, and 21% Mourvedre) reveals more licorice, damp earth, blackberry, and cassis fruit as opposed to the kirsch and raspberry characteristics found in the Sticks and Stones. With superb purity, medium to full body, ripe tannins, good freshness and definition, and a stunningly long finish, it should be drunk over the next 5-7 years. Matt Trevisan has a new state-of-the-art winery and barrel-aging facility as well as access to a new 18-acre estate vineyard. Like some of his nearby neighbors (particularly Justin Smith of Saxum), this is one of the most exciting wineries to visit on Vineyard Drive, essentially the tenderloin section of the limestone hillside vineyards of West Paso Robles. Production at Linne Calodo was off by 30-40 percent in 2007, and another 10% in 2008, but given the global economic crisis most wine producers are probably happy to have high quality, but smaller quantities given the financial climate throughout the world. Tel. (805) 227-0797; Fax (805) 227-4868