Edmunds St. John

Steve Edmunds is so committed to particular varieties grown in particular places that his website features testimonials from obscure French vignerons. You might consider this odd, and you might even find his wines a bit hard to understand at first. But if you pay attention to them they speak with extraordinary clarity about how site, soil, vines and man combine to produce wine. His labels all say his wine was bottled by “Intuition and Blind Luck,” but that hasn’t been true for years. At this point it’s a combination of intuition and experience, leavened with unwavering determination.

The fruit this time came from Eaglepoint Ranch, a high-elevation vineyard in Mendocino that’s prime for Rhone varieties and Zinfandel. The blend is 58 percent Syrah and 42 percent Grenache (a ratio that would not turn any heads in France). The wine was pressed into 25-year-old puncheons rather than new oak barrels, so you’re getting intense fruit without window dressing or wood paneling. I found aromas of blackberry pie filling with an earthy hint of black olive; complex, ripe red and black flavors with medium weight and good body; and a nice palate grip from fine, tooth-coating grape tannins that portend years of success in the bottle.

Reviewed August 19, 2007 by Thom Elkjer.