Charles Smith Wines Motor City Kitty Syrah 2021 750ml

The aromas leap out of the glass. Wet earth, tapenade, green peppercorns, volcanic ash and tea leaves. Hints of orange peel. It’s electric on the palate, so savory, so earthy and so minerally, with stemmy and tea-like tannins. The freshness and energy are astounding, and the finish just keeps going. Delicious syrah. Drink or hold. (James Suckling)

The famous McCrea Cuvee Orleans came from this vineyard, and the 2022 Syrah Motor City Kitty continues the site’s reputation for greatness, offering a ripe style and lots of wood, but showing something very special in its spicy, meaty, herbal complexion, memorable particularly for its sense of purity and balance. Made in a dense, brooding, full-bodied style, it spent time fermenting in concrete tank on its skins for 45 days before settling into 500-liter puncheon for 15 months on the lees. Dark fruit and spicy dried herbs accent the core of the wine, which will benefit from further aging, 10-12 years.

Potent but structured and polished, offering expressive raspberry and blueberry flavors that take on licorice and black olive accents as this races toward zesty tannins. Drink now through 2032. 2,271 cases made. (Tim Fish)

The 2021 Syrah The Motor City Kitty is impossible to ignore. Rich and fruit-focused, it wafts up with notes of rum cake and blackberry jam complicated by black olive, rosemary and ashen stones. This opens with a balanced inner sweetness offset by tart wild berry fruits. It is quite lifted in feel, with sage and exotic spices propelled by brisk acidity. The 2021 tapers off with tremendous length, leaving a saturation of primary concentration and firming tannins that promise many years of future development. (Eric Guido)