2006 Donkey & Goat Syrah Vieilles Vignes

Inky ruby. Pungent dark berry, cherry pit, cola and cracked pepper scents are classically syrah. Warm, round and gently toasty, offering sweet cassis and blackberry flavors and an undercurrent of brown spices. The peppery quality recurs on the clinging finish. I kept looking for tannins but the deep fruit seems to have sucked them up. Many of these vines date back to at least 1919, and most of the rest were planted in 1948, according to co-owner Tracey Brandt.