2014 Matetic Syrah Corralillo San Antonio Valley

Matetic’s Syrah is made from fruit grown in the Rosario Vineyard in San Antonio Valley, in granite-clay soils. As with all of Matetic’s wines, the viticulture follows organic and biodynamic principles. The Syrah grapes were fermented cold with ambient cultures in open-top vessels, and the wine was moved to French oak for 14 months of aging.

This is a three-day wine, maybe a four-day wine. At first it’s all raw meat, feral and unapproachable. On Day Two the fruit starts to crawl out of its cave. By Day Three the wine stretches and smiles; now there are thyme-steeped red fruits, licorice, anise seed, and purple flowers. But it retains its gamy, cured meat qualities, and at the finish there’s a snap of coffee and bitter chocolate.

Admirably made but too young. Give it lots and lots of air (hence the empty bottle, above; most of the wine was in a decanter). Or, age it for five years to allow it to evolve and integrate.