MELKA MAJESTIC GSM 2018

This wine has one of the most soaring, expressive noses I have experienced so far this year.  "A $50 nose," my notes read, and it is a real beauty, offering outstanding floral lift (lilac, violet, freesia) to the raspberry and marionberry fruit, and a terrific sense of brushy garrigue to add complexity.  In the mouth, this possesses the fruit generosity of the 2012 vintage, but as typical for Ryan's wines, it has a sturdy acid spine to balance that fruit (listed alc is a reasonable 13.8%).  

There's a real sense of wildness to this, likely in part from the inclusion of 20% whole cluster (stems and all), and in part from Olsen Mourvedre, which has its own sauvage character.  Regardless, this nails the holy trinity of the southern Rhone--brambly berry, hot-rock minerality, and perfumed underbrush-and it does so via a series of seductive, silky, unapologetically delicious mouthfuls.