Angelica

Gypsy Canyon Ancient Vine Angelica Marcelina’s Vienyard Sta. Rita Hills NV ($155/375mL, 18%):

First, just take a moment to admire the bottle: hand-blown, with a manual-letterpressed label, its cork sealed with beeswax from the estate. Then, take many moments to admire the wine, from grapes planted in 1887, which I consider to be the finest example of California angelica today. In an unusual technique, winemaker Deborah Hall ferments the wine about halfway — as one would when making Port — before fortifying the wine with her own Mission grape brandy. Brilliantly rustcolored, wafting butterscotch and mostarda, it’s unctuous, honeysuckle-laden, lush. A great dessert wine.

Foxen 7200 Mission Barberena Vineyard Santa Maria Valley 2014 ($30/375mL, 18.2%):

A dark rubycolored wine that shows Mission’s typical bright, apple-juice aroma, but then gets deeply sweet: dates and prunes, sappy like syrup.

Deaver Angelica Port Amador County ($40/375mL, 19.8%):

An amber-brown, translucent sweet wine, smelling of liquor-soaked dates. Pure molasses. Better still is Deaver’s Golden Nectar Port ($30/375mL, 21.1%), made primarily but not entirely of Mission, dark gold in color and tangier, tasting of apricots and shortbread.

Buena Vista Angelica (500mL, 17.76%):

A Tawny Port-like wine, showing honeyed, oxidized fruit notes — wild berries, browned apples, dates. A spicy molasses character dominates at the finish.

Swanson Angelica ($150/750mL, 18%):

Dense but not without energy, Swanson’s Angelica shows leathery, Tawny aspects, full of dates, figs, spice and molasses.