Alban

Alban 2008 Syrah, 'Reva', Edna Valley, 750ml. John Alban makes some of the most aromatically complex and explosively rich wines in the New World from Syrah and Grenache. He works entirely with fruit from his own superb clonal material, planted on chalk-rich hillside vineyards open to cooling sea breezes. The wines have the exotic yet varietal-accurate character and creamy sweetness to provide immediate pleasure but have the balance and structure to age. The 2008 Syrah Reva is dazzling. It possesses striking inner perfume and beautifully delineated fruit. Blackberries, blueberries, freshly cut white flowers, licorice, tar and asphalt are some of the notes that take shape in the glass. Alban gave the 2008 Reva 44 months in untoasted French oak barrels.