The 2008 Caldera is a gorgeous wine laced with tar, smoke, bacon fat and ash. It shows terrific purity and finesse through to the textured finish. Dried flowers, spices, tobacco and game add the final layers of complexity to this exotic, beguiling red. The 2008 Caldera is 65% Mourvedre, 30% Grenache and 5% Counoise. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2016. Helen Keplinger is the winemaker at Bryant, where she now also makes her own wines with her husband, Douglas. Keplinger credits the years she spent working in Priorat as shaping her philosophy on wine and life. These Rhone blends are made from hillside vineyards in Amador County, El Dorado County and Knights Valley. The wines are aged in French oak, 20-65% new, depending on the wine. Racking is kept to a bare minimum and the wines are neither fined nor filtered. Readers owe it to themselves to check out these pure, handcrafted wines. Tel. (707) 252-7417