01 Lagier Meredith, Mount Vedeer Napa Valley Syrah

You begin to wonder about evolution when you drink a wine like this. I can see the ripe red berries alongside an old gravel stretch struck by lightning, bruised, and slowly metamorphosed into plums. Built on a mountainous perch of acid and alcohol, this spicy syrah is rich but focused, like spiked tropical punch, and it intensifies with every moment in the glass. The fruit becomes brighter, the pepper moves from black to the flesh of Anaheims, and I get weaker and weaker.