Alta Cellars 2020 Candy Mountain Vineyard Syrah (Candy Mountain)

Made with grapes from one of Washington's newest AVAs, the wine aged for 20 months in a combination of once-filled and neutral French oak barrels. Ripe boysenberries and white roses make for a sweet perfume worth dabbing on pulse points. The wine feels round and slippery in the mouth as its fine-grained tannins try to play it cool. The raspberry-jam, bittersweet dark-chocolate, pipe-tobacco and graham cracker flavors are like a s'more for adults. The most impressive thing about this wine, given its alcohol percentage, is its balance and the lack of perceptible heat. Michael Alberty