2003 Bone Rock James Berry Vineyard

.Here's my idea of a near-ideal visit for a wine writer:consistently superb wines, only three or four different cuvees each vintage, and a beautiful hillside vineyard just outside the door.Justin Smith, who made his wines at Garretson through 2002, makes three blended wines from the family's low-yielding James Berry Vineyard and from two nearby vineyards, where he pays for fruit by the acre.The home vineyard, which features clay and limestone on the tops of the hillsides, along with broken shale, is located in the rolling hills on the west side of Paso Robles.The soil here offers good water retention, which gives the vines better resistance to heat spikes, says Smith.The Saxum 2003s aged on their lees, with very low levels of SO2, until they were racked for the bottling, which took place in March of this year.Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation take place with native yeasts.The Saxum wines are quite high in alcohol, like so many in the neighborhood, but here the alcohol is associated with a seductive creaminess of texture rather than obvious heat-a tribute to the strength of the raw materials and the quality of the winemaking and elevage.