Perhaps the most put-together and complete wine of the range this year, the 2020 Syrah Armada Vineyard has classic notes of potpourri, savory herbs, black olive, hints of green and black peppercorns and dusty cherry blossoms that sway with a delightful mineral essence. Medium to full-bodied, the wine is balanced on the palate, with a fine mineral tension, precision, focus and a lingering, food-friendly, savory finish with a tight tannic edge. The wine rested for 21 months in about 20% new French oak. 7,656 bottle produced. Bravo!

Rich, juicy and lush with a ripe dark red and black-fruited core of fruit, the 2019 Syrah Armada Vineyard offers dusty purple flowers and savory elements with notions of smoked meat. Medium to full-bodied, the Syrah is firm, focused and refined while offering wonderful savory and umami essences as the generous wine gains in complexity. Still firm and with a taut mineral tension, the wine subsides with a spicy and lingering finish that will benefit from a couple more years of bottle aging to release its tight grip. Be patient and give it time.

Beginning with a fantastic nose of cured venison, black pepper, roasted herbs and wilted lavender, the 2018 Syrah Armada Vineyard offers smoked jerky and cold fireplace elements. Medium to full-bodied, the wine displays impeccable balance with a velvety mid-palate and succulent tannins that need an additional year in bottle to come around. The wine concludes with a long, lingering finish with persistent flavors of sweet tobacco, roasted blackberries and cigar box. The wine rested for just under two years in approximately 15% new French oak. Give it a try; it's delicious as always. Almost 8,000 bottles were produced.

The 2017 Syrah Armada Vineyard bursts out of the glass with complex and expressive aromas of blackberry, black tea, savory and umami tones of crushed black pepper, grilled meat and dried lilac and lavender. Medium to full-bodied, the wine is elegant and seamless on the palate, unfolding beautifully with precision and intention, offering up instant gratification in youth. The wine unfolds its wings across the mid-palate and takes flight, leading to the elongated and continually evolving finish, which grows in complexity and amplitude in the mouth. The 2017 is more approachable in youth than the 2016 vintage of the same bottling. If you enjoy wines in their youth, this vintage is a no-brainer. Only 613 cases were produced.

From the moment you stick your nose in the glass, you are immediately struck with something special. The 2016 Syrah Armada Vineyard has fantastic focus on the nose, with black fruits and a grippy core of minerality, revealing some soft truffle tones and black spices along the way. Full-bodied on the palate, the wine shows an impressive weight and continues to gain in breadth and depth, expanding and unfolding on the mid-palate. Beautifully structured flavors of cured meats and peppercorn evolve with incredible mineral tension and dusty red fruits, and the wine ends with a long, thought-provoking finish. The Armada Syrah is collector-worthy. The 472-case production leaves me speechless.