Proprietors Pam and Pax Mahle have fashioned a 2004 Syrah called Agharta. Aged 58 months (that's not a typo) in French oak casks (the 2005 2006 and 2007 vintages will spend 45-48 months in cask) the extraordinary 2004 is a 475-case blend of 92% Syrah 5% Grenache and the rest Viognier Marsanne and Roussane. Most of the Syrah comes from the Alder Springs Vineyard in Mendocino. This profound wine's inky/purple color is followed by aromas of smoky barbecue meats grilled Provencal herbs and exotic tropical fruits intermixed with blackberry cassis blueberry and graphite. This super-rich effort tastes like the nectar of Syrah yet it is dry elegant and remarkably fresh and precise. In the mouth the impression is like that of a multilayered cake - everything is there. This is an amazing very multi-dimensional wine that must be tasted to be believed. It can be drunk now or cellared for two decades.