The dense ruby/purple-colored 2000 Pandora (a limited production Syrah and Grenache blend packaged in a tall designer bottle) offers an enticing bouquet of earth, graphite, black cherries, currants, pepper, and spice. A full-bodied, multilayered effort, it will drink well for 10-12 years.

More of this wine may be available at a higher price.

Tremendous; dark, dense, rich and concentrated, with layers of beef carpaccio, blackberry, wild berry, exotic peppery spices and touches of tar and herbs, finishing with a long, rich, detailed finish. Drink now through 2012. 1,450 cases made. –JL

The dazzling 1997 Syrah Saralee\'s Vineyard was bottled with neither fining nor filtration. A blend of 97% Syrah and 3% Viognier, it boasts wicked aromatics consisting of roasted meats, black fruits, cassis liqueur, and bacon. This succulent, fleshy, flamboyantly-styled Syrah is open-knit and accessible, but it is full-bodied, low in acidity, and loaded with fruit. It is a hedonistic Syrah to drink over the next 10-15 years.

The 2002 Syrah (380 cases from four vineyards spread out through Dry Creek Valley and one in Knight’s Valley) is the only wine in this portfolio that was aged in 100% new oak. It was also bottled unfined and unfiltered after 20 months of aging. Sweet blackberry characteristics intermixed with creosote, charcoal, acacia flowers, and barbecue spices are accompanied by a full-bodied, unctuously-textured, rich, intense wine that should drink well for a decade.

The 2002 Two Acres (67% Mourvedre, 22% Petite Sirah, and the rest Valdepenas and Alicante Bouchet from a vineyard planted in 1910) reveals just what Mourvedre is capable of achieving in California. Coming across as a French Bandol on steroids, it boasts a dark ruby/purple color along with a truffle-scented nose revealing notes of damp earth, tree bark, blueberries, raspberries, and spice. The full-bodied, powerful Mourvedre component gives the wine a fig-like character. This distinctive, singular cuvee will undoubtedly be one of the more controversial offerings in the Carlisle portfolio. It should drink well for 10+ years.

The 2005 IX Syrah Estate is a dense purple-hued wine of polished elegance and finesse, subtle but intense aromatics offering up notes of earth, lard, meat, spring flowers as well as black and blue fruits. It is buttressed by good acidity, and fine, yet sweet tannins. This medium to full-bodied wine should evolve effortlessly for a decade or more. There are less than 400 cases of the estate wine. Ann Colgin and her winemaking team have been making Cabernet Sauvignon from the Herb Lamb Vineyard since 1992, but the production seems to get smaller and smaller every year.