The 2006 Novillero is also showing slightly better than it was last year. An even more powerful wine at 15.6% alcohol, it is another intriguing blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Viognier, which gives uplift to the spicy, meaty aromatics, which also include creme de cassis, blackberry, licorice, and earth. It is a powerful wine, layered, extravagantly rich, and dark ruby/purple in color, as one might expect. This wine should drink beautifully for 7-10 years. Readers who compare last year’s barrel tasting notes with those for the finished wines will notice that these 2006s are dramatically superior to how they showed last year, which is the way it should be. This is an impressive group of wines that, from an appearance standpoint, are clones of Manfred Krankl’s Sine Qua Non, especially the distinctive artistic labels done by the proprietor, much like Krankl does, and the back-breaking heavy bottles.Tel. (805) 640-9432