We had a very nice evening last week with Pax Mahle, who showcased 6 recent release wines alongside some stellar food at Maverick in San Antonio, Tx. Pax was honest and charming throughout the evening, and did a nice job explaining his vineyards, winemaking style, and pursuit with this lineup. Afterward, a bevy of stellar champagne and N.rhone wines was shared courtesy of Joshua Thomas, who is an extremely generous, intelligent and hospitable ambassador of wine in our community. Josh recently returned to Texas to open a truly compelling space which is worth a visit if you are ever nearby: http://mavericktexas.com
2015 Pax Chenin Blanc “Buddha’s Dharma” Mendocino: This had a nice golden hue, with aromas of white floral blossoms and honey with flavors of white peach and strong lime peel. I thought of Huet the moment I tasted it, although a touch drier even than the sec. I’m told the approach in the cellar is akin to Guiberteau’s, and wow, what a seriously delicious chenin this is. The 2015 is a drink now and over the next 3, but hold your 16/17s for a bit longer.
2018 Pax Trousseau Gris Fannucci-Wood Road, Sonoma County: formerly known as “grey riesling” in the 60/70s in CA, this wine is pale orange/rose in the glass. It is some truly unique juice and I’m glad to have a couple at home for the summer. The nose is complex, almost beguiling such I can’t quite place the aromas, but certainly some baked apple, ripe pear, and deep mineral/limestone undertones. The palate presence was surprising against the nose, I suspect because it is completely unsulfured
Served with arugula salad, spiced walnuts, pickled heirloom beets, goat cheese and carrots
2018 Pax Valdiguie “Quail Run Vineyard”: Foot crushed fruit from the Suisun Valley, 100% carbonic maceration in concrete vats and bottled with no sulfur, this is a bottle that typifies the house style. Freshest of fresh sliced blackberries, with unripe blueberry (think the smallest berry in the bunch) with that tart punch. There are actually some drying tannins here and as expected, it drinks like a beaujolais with fruit tones leaning to blue and black. Pax recommends to serve this (and all his reds) cold. I couldn’t help thinking about the “blueberry skins” descriptor in the critic bingo thread. It was actually pretty spot on here 
Served with cavatelli, smoked tomato, arugula and caciocavallo
2017 Pax “Sonoma Hillsides” Syrah: A blend of fruit from Castelli Knight Ranch, Griffins Lair, and Alder Springs fruit, the 2017 was bottled with sulfur. A worthy follow up to the glorious 2016, this bottle was mouthwateringly fresh with the same bright floral nose, orange peel, and angostura bitters. Unbelievable fresh raspberry and cranberry fruit with drying green olive notes. It has a lot going on and a quick review of CT notes will show you that this is a polarizing wine; although I don’t think it’s so much the wine itself as the style. If you don’t like low alcohol, low sulfur, low intervention winemaking yielding tart bright fruit, this will not appeal. On the other hand, in my view, it’s so unique that serving it to most people at least yields a prompt “I’ve never had anything like this before”.
2015 Pax Syrah “Castelli-Knight Ranch”: 100% syrah, 100% whole cluster fermentation with natural yeast. The fruit is sourced from the northern end of RRV where orange clay soils dominate. Pax says the vineyard faces NE and has good sun exposure and I think it shows in the wine. Open knit, with bright raspberry and orange peel notes, it has an open and ready to go sort of feel. There’s a warmth to the wine despite cold serving temp. This was the most St. Joesph-like syrah of the bunch. If you are opening his SVD syrahs, pull this one first.
2015 Pax Syrah “Griffin’s Lair Vineyard”: 100% syrah, 100% whole cluster fermentation. Fruit from this bottling comes from the southern tip of the Sonoma coast, south of Petaluma, with SW facing vines. This is described in opposition to the C-K Ranch vines. The coastal climate is displayed in the wine, with notes of fresh mint in the nose, and cold roses, as if opening a fridge in a flower store. The palate is tightly coiled, with black fruit and fine white pepper notes. The acidity seems higher in this bottle compared to C-K Ranch, and this is the one to hold for 5-10 years.
The 3 syrahs were poured alongside roasted pork tenderloin with trumpet mushrooms, green beans and crushed new potatoes
Afterward, we tried:
Jérôme Prévost Champagne La Closerie Extra Brut Les Beguines
Egly-Ouriet Champagne Premier Cru Brut “Les Vignes de Vrigny”
2016 Dard et Ribo St. Joseph Pitrou
2012 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard
2017 Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet (Hervé Souhaut) St. Joseph Les Cessieux
and I had brought a 2003 Pax Castelli Knight Ranch with was (very sadly) badly corked. Pax immediately offered to replace it, for which I took a raincheck to a future visit to the tasting room in Sebestapol (Tasting Room — Pax Winery & Tasting Room)
By this point, I wasn’t taking notes. Every one of the wines served tonight was delicious and educational in its own way and Pax’s wines stood up to the old world bunch just fine. If you like Northern rhone, or really just low intervention winemaking (not “natural” wine), I strongly recommend trying a few of his wines. It was a delightful evening and left me thirsty for more.