Ali Haque

9.3

Light bodied but flavorful — a month ago

Jake Hajer

9.3

Smoked meat! — 5 months ago

Steve Anderson

9.3

Guilty pleasure. Still drinking well. — 7 months ago

Turd Ferguson

9.3

50:50 Grenache/Mourvedre. Whole cluster, neutral oak and concrete. Juicy and elegant. Sneaky fine tannins. 13.5%. Winner. — 9 months ago

Jeremiah Diaz

9.1

Deep purple in color; black plums, black cherries, and black currant on the nose; medium acidity; medium plus tannins; tastes like black fruit jam, and eucalyptus with a long finish. 91 points Jason and I like this wine. Leslie and Nellie didn't. 91 points — 4 months ago

with Jason

Turd Ferguson

9.1

1L growler refills off the tap FTW. A bit longer on the skins in ‘23. This is my favorite vintage of this wine yet, didn’t love previous vintages. This feels closer to the Jolie-Laide version. That’s a good thing. — 6 months 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! — 9 months ago

with Deked1

Nick Farrell

9.5

Very nice. Complex. — 5 months ago

Turd Ferguson

9.1

Lean and delicious. Violets. Smoked meat. So much better than the last one I had nine months ago. Previous bottle may have been flawed. — 6 months 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. — 9 months ago