2007 Favia Rompecabezas, Red Wine, Amador

We are very excited about our third release of Rompecabezas, which in Spanish means "jig-saw puzzle." This tongue twister of a wine is inspired by the wines of Southern France, but of course is Californian by nature. The grapes-Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah-hail from the soon-to-be-famous Amador vineyard of viticulturist Ann Kraemer. Whole cluster, very ripe Grenache, with immediate notes of tobacco and dried cherries, is co-fermented with fresh, vibrant Mourvedre in small, open-top oak fermenters. After a long, controlled maceration, the wine is blended with Syrah and put into 700-liter French oak puncheons for two years. The resulting wine-roughly one-third each variety-is deeply exotic, showing aromatic notes of flowers and citrus. Generous and juicy on the palate, the big berry fruit flavors meld with hints of candied cherries, cinnamon, sea salt and lipstick. Not a super-extracted giant, but a subtle mind-bender of a blend that takes you on a trip to the Mediterranean. The 2007 blend is composed of 38% grenache, 37% mourvedre and 25% syrah.

128 cases produced, $65/bottle