During the past five years, production at David Girard Vineyards just south of Coloma has more than quintupled, from 1,200 cases annually to 6,500.

Earlier this winter, David Girard winemaker Mari Wells Coyle casually dropped that nugget during a tasting of the wines in her current portfolio. After we sampled a dozen, the reason for the growth in a recession that hasn't been kind to wines priced at more than $20 or $30 – the range of most of David Girard's releases – was clear:

Coyle knows how to make wines that express with confidence and finesse their pedigree and place. They are distinctive and authoritative, with structure and balance that put them at both extremes of the wine-appreciation spectrum – ready for immediate consumption but with the symmetry to invite longterm aging.

When a wine writer is faced with whittling the field to a single wine most representative of value, quality, time, place and the winery's aspirations, what's he to do short of flipping a coin? There wasn't a letdown in the lineup, no matter how obscure the grape variety (grenache blanc, rolle). Our long list of favorites included a sunny and spicy roussanne-based blend called Coda Blanc, the rangy rolle, a couple of vital grenaches and a hefty and complicated mourvedre.

The wine with the most compelling story, however, is the David Girard Vineyards 2008 El Dorado Okei-San Syrah, which at $70 is one of the pricier wines to come out of the Sierra foothills.

What do you get for that kind of special-occasion investment? A syrah of uncommon complexity and elegance. While dark and concentrated, it seduces rather than bludgeons, thanks to variegated smells and flavors that start off with the cheery juiciness of blueberries before segueing through earth, smoke, spice and black tea, all of which linger harmoniously in the wine's prolonged finish.

Coyle said her model for Okei-San was the exuberant and mouthwatering wines of Côte Rôtie in France's northern Rhone Valley. There, syrah customarily is blended with 5 percent viognier to perk up its fragrance, a practice Coyle adopted to delightful effect.

That $70 also buys you a handsome smoked-glass bottle with a gold silkscreened label dominated by a large and ancient keyaki tree, prized in Japan for its beauty and its wood, and often transformed into furniture.

What's that all about? For inspiration in the marketing of what they clearly saw as a special wine, the folks at David Girard Vineyards looked down Cold Springs Road to a nearby plot of land that for two years, starting in 1869, was occupied by the Wakamatsu tea and silk experiment.

At that time, the keyaki tree reproduced on the label was planted on the property. It continues to stand near a house built in the 1850s by a rancher, Charles Graner, who worked the rangeland before the Japanese arrived.

The proprietary name Okei-San was inspired by Okei Ito, the first Japanese woman to be buried in the United States. Her grave is also on the property.

Last fall, the American River Conservancy closed escrow on 272 historic acres that included the site of the early but failed effort to raise silkworms and grow tea in the Mother Lode. Restoration of the Graner ranch house is under way, and eventually the conservancy hopes to open the site as a public park with trails around its creeks, orchards, barns and stands of oak.

Winery owner David Girard has earmarked 10 percent of the proceeds from the sale of Okei-San wine for preservation work at the site of the Japanese colony.

David Girard Vineyards 2008 El Dorado Okei-San Syrah ($70)

By the numbers: 14.5 percent alcohol, 200 cases

Context: Mari Wells Coyle likes the wine with smoked pork tenderloin or a hearty risotto, but she's also found that it pairs well with hamachi, a member of the amberjack family, often prepared as sushi.

Availability: Okei-San is available only at David Girard Vineyards, 741 Cold Springs Road, Placerville, where the tasting room is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.

More information:www.davidgirardvineyards.com.

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Longtime wine critic and competition judge Mike Dunne continues his relationship with The Bee as a contributing columnist to the Food & Wine section and www.sacwineregion. com. His wine selections are based solely on open and blind tastings, judging at competitions, and visits to wine regions. Check out his blog at http:// ayearinwine. blogspot.com, and reach him at mike

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