Picking a birthday wine

It was my birthday recently and I had my entire cellar (ok, collection, since we Cali folks don't have cellars) to choose from. I wanted something really good to go along with the normal dinner. And the nominations for the wine I wanted to drink on my b-day were:

• Montes 2005 Syrah Alpha
  
• Thorn Clarke 2004 Shiraz Shotfire
• Luzon 2005 Luzon

It was no contest, really, as I had been thinking of this wine the previous 24 hours for some reason... Montes Alpha. And it was showing itself beautifully with intense dark fruit and dark spice flavors. Medium bodied, balanced. My score: 92.