Tried these two last night:
1. St.Cosme AP: Cotes du Rhone (100% Syrah; 14.5%; www.SaintCosme.com; Winebow) Louis & Cherry Barroul 2018: Very dark color; very strong blackberry/Syrah/ripe/bit boysenberry/spicy slight roasted/roasted meats/black olive/Rhonish beautiful nose; lightly tart fairly strong blackberry/Syrah/spicy/bit peppery slight earthy/Rhonish/roasted/black olive tapenade rather Rhonish flavor w/ light tangy tannins; very long strong blackberry/Syrah/Rhonish/peppery/black olive finish w/ some tangy tannins; loads of blackberry/Syrah/Caalif-like some Rhonish character; a great Syrah at a greaat price; needs at least a yr of age to come around. $15.00 (PrimaIlC)
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2. Arnot-Roberts Syrah SonomaCoast (12%; 32 brls) 2018: Very dark color; very strong Rhonish/whole-cluster/peppery/black olive tapenade some blackberry/Syrah/peppery/black pepper complex very attractive nose; quite tart/tangy/lean/bit screechy strong Rhonish/w-c/peppery/black olive tapenade some blackberry/Syrah/spicy/peppery some complex flavor w/ modest bitey/tangy tannins; very long very tart/tangy very strong w-c/Rhonish/black olive light Syrah/blackberry finish w/ some tangy tannins; will benefit from a few yrs of age; pretty classic A-R rather lean/hard Syrah loaded w/ w-c character; a bit pricey at $40.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. St.Cosme has always been just about my favorite CdR because of its high Syrah content. It's not your ordinary CdR. This '18 is one of the best young-uns I can recall. I took these down to P+F to share w/ Dustin. He opened the '17 that they had on their wine list. It was good, but more CdR in character. I thought this '18 was far better.
Tom