2001 Pax Syrah, Mendocino County Alder Springs Vineyard ‘The Terraces’

This is our first ‘block-Designated’ Syrah from this incredible vineyard. The Terraces block faces due south on an impossibly steep terraced hillside. We co-fermented this wine with 5% Viognier from a block just above the terraces. Co-fermenting these two Rhone varieties together is common in Cote Rotie, most notably in E. Guigal’s ‘La Turque & La Mouline’. This style of fermentation not only adds the exotic perfume that you would expect from the Viognier, it really seems to intensify the complexity of aromatics altogether. Much more of a wine than just our Alder Springs Syrah with a little Viognier blended in, this wine is totally unique and purely exotic.

Tasting Note:
Grilled rare red meat, peach blossoms and dried crushed blueberries can be smelled ten feet from a glass of this wine. Aromas of freshly baked raspberry pie brighten the sappy sweet blackberry that dominates the attack. Majestic and expressive in the mouth, more exotic flavors emerge with mint, tar, blood, charred meat and violets lingering long after the wine has been swallowed.