2020 Pax Wines, Syrah, Sonoma Coast.
While I have shied away from the 2020 vintage with the smoke taint, there are some joyful experiences to be had and I was very pleased I opened this 2020 Pax Sonoma Coast Syrah last night and I admired its fresh purity, dark core of fruit and northern Rhône character, in fact it really reminded of René-Jean Dard and François Ribo’s Crozes-Hermitage Rouge. This Syrah was deeply purple in the glass with an earthy nose of forrest floor, black olives, feral game, crushed violet and charred wood, all leading to a classic Syrah palate of boysenberry, blueberry, damson plum and currant fruits, along with peppercorns, minty licorice, orange marmalade, camphor, flinty mineral and roasted herbs. The body is medium to full and has good acidity and there’s a lot of crunchy whole cluster pop here, and this will appeal to natural wine lovers, as well as Pax’s Syrah followers, with its raw intensity and no pretense attitude, and it is best enjoyed with hearty food choices. I remain skeptical of the 2020 vintage for California reds, but again there are some very good ones out there, but I highly recommend grabbing 2021 and 2023, they will not disappoint.
Pax Wines, led by Pax Mahle, who is one of California’s best known, influential and respected winemakers, who has been incredible helpful to a whole new generation of small producers and most noted for his northern Rhône style Syrah. As mentioned here, Pax, is a die hard Rhône specialist, but who also has branched out into making some natural style alternative wines in recent years from unique and rare grapes, like Gamay, Trousseau, Trousseau Gris and Charbono, is mostadmired for his towering and age worthy single vineyard Syrah bottlings, including his Castelli-Knight, Alder Springs and the older Griffin’s Lair bottlings. This naturally styled and made wine, is 100% Syrah, coming from sites less affected by the vintage’s fires, was hand crafted with old world influence using a combination of whole bunches (100% Whole-Cluster), with Pax’s fermentation using only indigenous yeasts. In his Syrah these days there is a variety of vessels for elevage with some getting concrete vat(s) and some getting used French casks including larger barrels or puncheons. I have been going through a bunch of Pax efforts lately, with the Gamays being of particular interest, but it was good to get my Syrah on again.
($36 Est.) 90 Points, grapelive