Last night, I was about to reach for a Beaujolais to pair with a red beet farrotto with toasted walnuts and oven-roasted kale, but I decided I wanted something just a bit bolder to stand up to the toasty-roasty flavors, and pulled an Arnot-Roberts 2018 Sonoma Coast Syrah. Sort of a silly thing to do, since this was the first bottle of this I've opened, so I didn't really know what to expect; but sometimes you just do what you want and rationalize it, if it works, by saying "I had a feeling."
Well, I had a feeling. This is still really young and tight; at first opening, there was a surprisingly bright and red-fruited top layer, some interestingly inky and tannic depths, and not a lot in between; but that top layer on its own already seemed like a pretty nice complement to the beets. With not too much time in the glass, the midpalate filled out a bit with savory black fruit, joining the layers of the wine into something seamless. For a wine that's still clearly holding something back, this was awfully pleasant to drink, and there was a nice parallel between the layers in the wine and the layers in the dish. Sometimes you win one!