97 Points | International Wine Cellar , November/December 2009

($67; 41% grenache, 31% mourvedre and 28% syrah) Inky purple color. Spectacular nose combines black and blue fruit preserves, cola, smoky Indian spices and potpourri, with a vibrant mineral underpinning. Juicy, vibrant and focused, offering sweet boysenberry and blueberry flavors and suave floral pastille and allspice qualities. Deeply concentrated but lithe, with superb finishing clarity and a spicy, endless finish. I also retasted the 2006 James Berry Vineyard and it is in a highly expressive, juicy phase right now, with strong, sweet red and dark berry flavors and excellent clarity. I suspect that my score of 94 last year was low by a point. And the 2008 version, tasted from barrel, looks at least as good as this 2007.

98 Points | Wine Spectator