Man!

So, over at Salt, we’re hosting Road 13 Winery + Vineyards‘ Michael Bartier on September 8th (tix here, by the way).  I’m so enamoured with both the winery and Michael’s mad winemaking skills, that it’s really like a kid counting down to Christmas for me.

In anticipation, last night I bought a bottle of his ’07 Syrah at the BCLDB ($25) to go with dinner.

I’d tried it a while back and enjoyed it, but it is drinking SO WELL right now, I highly recommend you grab a bottle in time for the weekend.  Quite an Old World style, with a splash of Viognier to open the thing up a little bit, there’s some great blackberries, blueberries, currants, cloves, allspice, licorice, cinnamon and spark of spearmint right at the end.  It’s soft and lush, but there are some great dark cocoa tannins to give it a solid backbone.  Soft enough for poultry, big enough for steak, this wine has bolted to the top of my local wine favourites and I’m already looking forward to my next bottle.

Go!  Go!  Go!

Before I grab it all.