I have always wanted to try Saxum. I made their list a few years ago but have yet to buy any for the following reasons:
I keep reading it needs to be aged probably 5 years or more, I want to drink it now.
The price - most of my wines are under $50, I think the most I have ever paid for a bottle is $70. To spend over $100 for a bottle crosses a line for me.
BUT - I recently came into some money unexpectedly so no more excuses.
I want Syrah or blends that are predominantly Syrah.
I am not sure what vintages are best and would be willing to try a somewhat lesser vintage if there would be a significant discount.
So far I have come up with the following options on buying:
Winebid
K&L
Benchmark
I am seeing auctions starting in the $100 range, looking to spend no more $150 with fees and shipping, not sure if that is realistic or not.
Thanks for any advise.
My personal advice is Saxum drinks nice young or old(er). Secondary market pricing reflects their popularity so you are going to pay over release price which is now $98 and that includes shipping. In some cases, well above release price.
You might as well buy at release and enjoy. Worst case you can sell them on here.
Iāve had good luck with K&L auction*, I find they regularly auction off bottles of different vineyards, vintages and quantities. Iāve bought about a dozen bottles over multiple auctions during the past 6-9 months, and paid not much more than current release for bottles with age ($108, $111 and $120 all in costs for 10 year old James Berry and Booker). If the $$ works for you, I find the best deals to be on lots of 3+ bottles, vs individual bottles.
Iām on the waiting list, and donāt know how allocations work, but Iād have to think hard about buying given the broad availability at auction. I dropped off the Rhys list for the same reason.
*Note, I live local to K&L in Los Angeles, so I can save on shipping costs, which plays into it being a better bargain for me, along with the flexibility to buy small quantities and pick up myself, YMMV.
I ran into shipping issues with K&L. They could no longer ship direct to Colorado and wanted to use a third party. Shipping was something stupid like $65 for a few bottles. I stopped buying from them for that reason.
Forgot that they included shipping. Looks like the next release is coming up in July, I might might wait until then assuming they have not booted me off the list yet.
A couple of notes to add to advice already received-
For my palate, Saxumās Syrah based wines need more age than the Grenache based wines. Wines like the Heart Stone bottling with its 50+% Syrah are approachable sooner even with the large Syrah % due to the large Grenache component (imo), 40+%.
The 2010 Broken Stones I found nearly undrinkable for its first 5-6 years; to the point I stopped buying that bottle. I opened one last fall and it was the WOTN against some heavy hitters. Guess I should have kept buying themā¦
Donāt shy away from āpoor/weakā CA vintages with Saxum. I donāt know if itās Paso or Saxum but Saxum seems to shine in poor vintages. 2008, 2011, 2012 are considered weak CA vintages, but Saxums wines from these years show brilliantly. The Ave wine buyer will discount these vintages leaving bargains for the more savy drinker.
Same man. They must have the most limited shipping range out of all auction/retails coās. Bummer too because I used to love buying from them. Had decent luck consigning with them a while back as well. Although I had to pull a few bottles the last time I tried selling with themā¦which I assume is because they now have a much smaller user-base due to their shipping ārestrictionsā.
I would think Commerce Corner here on WB. Let folks know what you are looking for - and even what you might want to trade if you want to go down that route. My guess is that there are more than a few folks sitting on older bottles that may not want them as much as you might . . .