TN: 2004 Pax Syrah Griffin's Lair (USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast)

  • 2004 Pax Syrah Griffin’s Lair - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (5/1/2018)
    Excited for the 16 Hillsides getting a trip digg…so I was inspired to open one of the few Pax I have left from the old days…A BIG fan back in the day…love the ooozzzze monster! Cork in perfect condition…nose…BEAUTIFUL smoke reduction, meat, tar, crushed berries…Alban came to mind. This looks promising! Nope…shattered dreams! In the mouth we have harsh dry tannins, disjointed alc burn, sour plum skin…not good unfortunately. Disappointed, as I’ve had some really good older Pax that have held up really well…even the 05 Rose’ was kickin last year. Still, I’m looking forward to trying some of the “new” Pax wines. (79 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

I had this a couple of weeks ago, and, I too, was disappointed. Not so much as your 79/74, but it was a really odd wine texturally: fat, soft, almost goopy. Quite unlike other older Pax I’ve had in the past couple of years. Couple that with some nondescript blue fruit and lack of syrah typicity and it was all-in-all uninspiring.

That is the lowest Buzz score on a wine I’ve ever seen!

It’s been a couple of years since my last bottle but I definitely remember it holding up better than this. I have one more bottle - fingers crossed that it’s more like my last than yours.

Funny, I did the same thing the other day with a 2006 Eastern Ridge with simlar results.

  • 2006 Pax Syrah Eastern Ridge - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (4/30/2018)
    Notes over 36 hrs. Started with a whiff of sulphur and menthol but morphed to old leather, still ample blackberry at first but giving way to persimmon and fig. Pick up some alcohol up front, has a bit of weight but no heat on the finish. Was better on day 1 tannins remain heavy and chalky. Was best at about 3hrs open, the extra day didn’t help but rather detracted. This was a wine that I thought might integrate nicely when last tasted 8yrs ago. Yet it just is what it was, an OK Syrah.
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Posted from CellarTracker

Buzz…Sounds alot like those past Behren’s and Hitchcock wines, Everytime I went to read a note it sounded like the wines were a complete mess…or like that $140 '07 vineyard 29 Aida which drunk Parker dubbed a La Mish look-a-like(choke, cough) tasted blind I thought it was a McManis(doh) but with a tad fancier oak treatment…yep a complete fuqn travesty of a wine.

…Good to see Pax woke up and figured it out…happy for his new direction

I have one bottle left of the 2004 Griffin’s Lair. I have had good results with my older Pax wines. I will pop the cork soon and report back. Sadly, I only have 2 bottles left of these wines.

Interesting. This is what many ‘predicted’ would happen to these wines, but most tasting notes I’ve seen over the past few years with his older wines have been good if not great and the wines had held up well.

It’ll be interesting to see further notes on these - and I guess we’ll find out what the aberrations were.

Cheers.

The 05 and 06 Griffin’s Lair have held up pretty well. Have not sampled the 04 to compare.

Hoping for better things for my last bottle of '04 Cuvee Keltie

Not any better day two…nose is great though! :slight_smile:

bummer … I have one of these left and a few other '04’s. was holding hoping they blossom.

Will try some soon.

Cheers

Opened my last bottle of 2004 Pax Griffin’s Liar this past weekend. Unfortunately, the wine is past its prime. The wine smelled ok but tasted like toasted/burnt oak with not much fruit left. 75pts.

I have one bottle of Pax left - a 2005 Obsidian and will look to pop the cork in the next couple of months. These wines have been mostly great with a few exceptions. I have been impressed on how well they have aged.

I too have some of the Obsidian, still bringing it as of the last bottle I had recently pileon

I had a Pax mag not long ago of similar age (2003 Keltie) and, while the wine is decidedly not “my style”, it showed much better than yours. Maybe I was in a good mood when I wrote it up on CT?

Double decanted this magnum and drunk with lamb sliders, etc., at Eatery A DSM. This being the “old style Pax”, I imagine this would be a polarizing wine. Not my style of syrah, ergo no score. Still, I can appreciate it for what it is. Big, very much still alive, and balanced. Kind of a “sweet tart” nose and a reasonably long finish. I call this a “slutty” wine, and indeed it has its charms. But for those looking for blood and meat and olives in their syrah, look elsewhere.

I have a bottle of this in my cellar and I guess it would be safe to say this thread does not offer a very optimistic outlook. I must say though I have drunk half a dozen older Pax Syrah’s over the last 7-8 years and they have all been good to excellent.