Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Pousseur Syrah - An Aroma So Big It Generates Its Own Gravitational Pull

SRP of $20, but previous vintages have been found as low as $15-$16, a fantastic deal. Sample received courtesy Bonny Doon Vineyard for review purposes.

From the bottle:

2008 Central Coast Syrah

'La syrah,' the French say - syrah is deeply and elementally feminine. It is perfumed elegance; enchanting and captivating rather than overpowering. One is disarmed by its freshness, its strangeness. Like Borges' Zahir, syrah makes an indelible impression. One will wander the world till the end of one's days with its sublime, haunting fragrance gradually displacing all thoughts and memories, including the knowledge of one's own name.

We aspire to produce wines in a more unaffected, hands-off style, with minimum winemaking intervention or manipulation. Equally we are committed to greater transparency. To this end, we append a list of ingredients used in the production of this wine. For more information, we encourage terrestrial visitations of our Cellar Door in Santa Cruz and communications with the Mothership telephonically at 881.819.6789 and aetherially at www.bonnydoonvineyard.com.

Ingredients: grapes, tartaric acid and sulfur dioxide.

In the winemaking process, the following were utilized: indigenous yeast, yeast nutrients, untoasted oak chips, and French oak barrels.

At time of bottling, this product contained: 65 ppm total SO2 and 25 ppm free SO2

First off, I love that Bonny Doon lists all the ingredients they use in making their wine, including all their additives. If you do a google search on the additives in wine, you quickly find some ratherdisconcerting stuff, so it's refreshing to see this type of transparency from a winemaker.

Moving onto the wine the first thing that stands out about the Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Pousseur Syrah is the aroma. Here are my exact notes: "Wow, wow, wow, and WOW!" You can smell this easily and wonderfully just being in the same general area as the glass and it just sucks you in like an irresistible force. Dark berries, flowers, and a little pepper combine in a fragrant and amazingly strong aroma I could smell all day! The 2008 Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Pousseur Central Coast Syrah doesn't disappoint in taste either. Rich, full bodied, dark fruit, without too much acidity and complemented by a smooth earthiness. It all ends with a savory, tannic finish. Fantastic, and a sure bet for the first half of the next Top 10 list.

See a listing of local retailers selling this wine here.