Wow.  The NY Times wine tasting panel used this one word to sum up their experience with the recent crop of California Syrahs.  Typical of the Northern Rhone, Syrah makes “gloriously fragrant” reds “redolent of herbs, olives, roasted meat and flowers.”  A hard-core cadre of Californians have dedicated to recreating this distinctive expression from domestic grapes, with much recent success creating a cult category of limited production and highly allocated wines.  Over the years, we’ve earned our annual allocation of the Arnot Roberts North Coast Syrah 2012 ($42), of which only 11 bottles remain.  Unfortunately due to the praise heaped upon this category, we expect these remaining bottles to disappear quickly and offer you first dibs.