2022 Desire Lines "Evangelho Vineyard" Contra Costa County Red Blend

The 2022 Evangelho Vineyard bottling from Cody and Emily Rasmussen is composed from a blend of ninety percent, very old vine Carignan and ten percent Mourvèdre. The Carignan vines are ungrafted and were planted in the 1890s! The wine was fermented with thirty percent whole clusters and raised all in foudres and the 2022 comes in at an even fourteen percent octane. It delivers a deep and complex aromatic constellation of cassis, sweet dark berries, chocolate, smoked meats, a lovely base of soil, a lovely array of spice tones and just a hint of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and shows beautiful old vine depth of fruit at the core, with good soil inflection and grip, ripe, well-integrated tannins and a long, complex and very well balanced finish. This is an outstanding wine, but give it a bit of time in the cellar to allow its tannins to start to soften up a bit on the backend.