Jean-Francois Jacouton Syrah 'A Deux Pas'

If you want a great introduction to Northern Rhone Syrah, this is the wine. J.F. Jacouton is blowing up, and his Syrah comes from granite and fine-grained alluvial soils near Saint Joseph. He spends all of his time near his vines, and when he's not growing grapes, he also tends to apricots, cherries, and peaches.

His baseline Syrah is classic in every way, shape, and form. Elegant, savory, aromatically captivating, and quite advanced, it showcases gorgeous notes of spiced blackberry, plum, damp earth, black pepper, and olive. Bring on the lamb chops!