Pax Wines

Pax Mahle was buying wine for Dean & DeLuca when he moved west in 1997, and by 2000 he was making cool-climate Syrah while everyone else planted Pinot Noir. The room has roll-up doors and a turntable, and stays open until seven.1 2

Why go

Pax and Pamela Mahle moved up in 1997 and spent several years tasting and sourcing across California before Alder Springs Vineyard settled it, and the label launched in 2000.2 Every fruit contract from the start has come from organically or sustainably farmed vineyards.2 The fruit is crushed by foot and ferments on ambient yeast.2

Mahle has a stated position on tannin and it explains the wines. He ferments whole-cluster as the norm, uses concrete and neutral oak, and does skin contact in concrete eggs.1 His reason: I'm a firm believer in firmness. I like tannin. You throw tannin at tannin, stem tannin to grape skin tannin, and you add more depth and texture to the wine.1

Castelli-Knight is the founding Syrah site and the winery says it has made wine from it every year since the beginning.2 The range has widened since into Vermentino, Pineau d'Aunis and Mondeuse Noire.2

Order this / avoid

Order: a Syrah. Wine Spectator's note on the Sonoma Coast bottling from 2012 found it a racy, driven red loaded with singed anise, blackberry paste, violet and white pepper notes.1
Order: the Castelli-Knight Syrah Experience at $125, or $95 for club members, four library vintages with paired bites over about ninety minutes. Only two appointments a week.2
Order: the Old Vine Grenache if it is open. The same piece calls it very elegant and pure through the finish, with the fruit showing nice persistence.1
Avoid: the cellar tour with anyone under 21. It goes into a working winery and the age rule is firm.2

What locals & experts say

Pax Mahle, in Wine Spectator, on why he stopped selling wine and started making it: And after all that I realized I needed to be the guy with the dirty boots making the wine, not the guy with the bowtie serving the wine.1
Mahle on what he is chasing: In the end it's about site, not style, and working with what the vineyard gives you. I'm trying to make subtle perfections as I tweak things, not huge pendulum changes in style.1

Good to know

Open daily, 11am to 7pm Sunday to Thursday and 11am to 8pm on Friday and Saturday, in The Barlow. Walk-ins welcome.2
Table service costs $5 a head as a deposit, refundable or applied to a purchase, and takes about forty-five minutes. Groups of six or more pay a 20 percent gratuity.2
Live music every Friday from five to seven, with no door charge.2
The Private Tasting and Cellar Tour is $95 for at least eight wines with a cheese and salumi board, about ninety minutes.2
Two domains exist. paxwines.com resolves and points at paxwine.com, which is the live one.

Verdict

should-visit — Mahle has a position on extraction and states it: whole-cluster as the norm, concrete and neutral oak, and stem tannin thrown deliberately at skin tannin because he likes the weight it gives. Wine Spectator found singed anise, blackberry paste, violet and white pepper in his Sonoma Coast Syrah, and elegance and persistence through the finish of the old-vine Grenache. Every fruit contract since 2000 has come from organically or sustainably farmed vineyards, by his own account. The Wine Spectator piece carries no date and no byline, which is the one soft spot in what I can tell you.

Pax Wines.