Steve Anderson

9.3

Guilty pleasure. Still drinking well. — 17 days ago

Tom Kobylarz

9.3

Hits all the notes for Syrah I'd expect from the Rhone plus some fleshy valor fruit. Good freshness. One of the better examples of the grape from CA. — 2 months ago

Jake Hajer

9.4

‘05 in ‘23. Color and depth to the edge. Good color. Blackberry, boysenberry, blueberry, cherry and leather on the nose. Deep and layered on the palate. Dense. Game. All mixed fruits. Beautiful wine. — 4 months ago

Rob N

9.2

Great gamay noir. — a year ago

Erik Longabardi

9.2

Compared to the ‘03 on a hot vintage this was also fire (but the ‘03 was the winner). — 23 days ago

Vanessa

9.3

Hello, California Syrah!!

From everything we’ve read, the Alder Springs Vineyard sounds like a truly majestic place.

It’s isolated in an undeveloped part of northern Mendocino County, situated in California’s North Coast region, where the steep and rugged terrain meet sweeping views of the ocean, bordered by rivers, redwoods, and snowcapped mountains… elevation stretches up to 1,800 feet above sea level.

It’s no wonder so many acclaimed producers, like Pax Mahle, source their fruit from here, where vines are sustainably farmed and cared for by Stuart Bewley. We were fortunate to visit Pax in Sebastopol in 2022, where we picked up this 2011 Cahto Ridge Alder Springs Vineyard Syrah. We’ve been waiting patiently to taste it. And here we are.

100% Syrah. Whole cluster fermented. Aged 12 months in neutral French oak barrels.

This wine is deep ruby trending towards garnet. The aromas are concentrated with ripe boysenberry, black cherry, blackcurrant, next to violet, black peppercorn, licorice, cured meat, peat moss, smoke, clove, leather and olive notes. On the palate, it is dry with medium (+) acidity, a medium (+) body, high alcohol (14.6% ABV), medium (+) fine-grained tannins, and a long, elegant finish.

It’s both elegant and wild all at the same time and we love it.

Cheers! — 3 months ago

with Deked1

Jenks

9.1

👌🏼 bright and fresh, stone fruit, nice acid, ever so slightly pink. Lovely. — 8 months ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.4

2022 vintage. Prettier nose of crushed violets and lavender. Label says “bottled without fining or filtration.” Medium body. 13.0% ABV. 100% Syrah. Big tannins afoot. A tad meaty in the flavors but not overwhelmingly so. 3.17.24. — a month ago

Turd Ferguson

9.3

50:50 Grenache/Mourvedre. Whole cluster, neutral oak and concrete. Juicy and elegant. Sneaky fine tannins. 13.5%. Winner. — 3 months ago

Michael Phillips

9.4

Dark without any brown edge. Deep brooding will evolve over the next decade or more! — 6 months ago