La Grande Colline is like gold dust: Finding a bottle of Hirotake Ooka’s ultra-rare natural wines, not just here, but anywhere in the world, is an extremely tall order. This is one of those wines that requires an “I know a guy that knows a guy” deal, a Syrah that even most aficionados haven’t had the opportunity to taste, seeing as the majority of his microscopic production is exported to his home country. Bonafide northern Rhône  jump through hoops for a bottle of Hirotake’s precious wine. 

Deeply perfumed aromas exploded out of the glass with notes of fresh rose petals, wild fruit blossoms, violets, and lavender. It’s classic northern Rhône and those accustomed to natural wines probably won’t recognize it as one as it bursts forth with wild berries, blue plums, black raspberry, black olives, crushed gravel, tapenade, wild mushrooms, white pepper, and lifted notes of turned earth. A true treasure of a Syrah!