The 2018 Lytton Springs is a blend of 72% Zinfandel, 18% Petite Sirah, 8% Carignane and 2% Mataro. The nose is lush and open, with aromas of aniseed, red and blue berries, blood orange and earth plus touches of tobacco leaf and dried flowers. The medium-bodied palate combines intense, powerful flavors with a more ethereal, silty structure, and it finishes with loads of juicy layers. It's stunning straight from bottle but will have more to give with time in the cellar. 11,900 cases produced.

The 2017 Lytton Springs is made up of 74% Zinfandel, 15% Petite Sirah, 9% Carignane and 2% Mataro. It aged in 100% air-dried American oak, 10% new. Medium ruby-purple, it opens with dried flowers, autumn leaves and cinnamon stick notions over a core of crushed red cherries, dried cranberries, apricot, underbrush, red currant and black cherries with a super spicy undercurrent. The palate is medium-bodied, spicy and fresh with a grainy frame and juicy freshness, finishing long and lifted.

The 2016 Lytton Springs is also excellent, offering up aromas of crushed currants, plums, candied violets and baked clay. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, rich and youthfully chewy, with a crunchy core of fruit and fine-grained but firm structuring tannins. It's a bit more burly and rustic than the satiny, sumptuous Geyserville this year—no surprise, given that the blend contains fully 23% Petite Sirah (alongside 69% Zinfandel, 6% Carignane and 2% Mataro).