A cool-climate Syrah from one of California’s most overlooked appellations. Richard Alfaro’s estate in Corralitos sits on the ocean-facing side of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where Pacific fog and a long, even growing season pull Syrah toward the savory, peppery end of the spectrum rather than the dark and jammy. The “A” bottling pulls from multiple blocks across the estate and spends 12 months in used French oak, leaving the fruit and the cracked-pepper aromatics in the foreground. It drinks like a northern-Rhone-leaning California Syrah at a price that makes weekday drinking easy.