2006 Saxum Broken Stones- USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles (9/10/2012)
16.3% alcohol. 63% syrah, 24% grenache, 13% mourvedre. Dark, but transparent ruby. Lovely floral and fruit aromas from 10" off the glass. The overriding palate impression is black cherry and black raspberry. A little bramble, a little smoke, but very pure. Great balance and extraordinary concentration and intensity. No noticable alcohol. The aftertaste goes on and on.
I didn’t know how I’d react to this very modern, fruit forward, full flavor wine. It is fantastic. My omnivore creds are still intact. (94 pts.)
I think all the 2006 Saxums, with at least an hour and ideally 2-3 hours, are drinking beautifully right now. They seemed to turn a corner as a group earlier this year…
Day 2: I’m surprised and delighted to report that this wine is even better than day 1 (given the alcohol and the ripeness, I wouldn’t have bet on it).
A gorgeous streak of bright red raspberry has emerged along with coffee and dark chocolate highlights adding nuance and complexity. This is a superb wine. I have two more left and not sure what to say about aging. It’s absolutely exceptional now, but should hold or even improve for 5-6 more years.
2006 Saxum Broken Stones- USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles (2/26/2014)
At 8 years old, this wine is still bursting with youthful vigor. Taut and edgy upon opening, it needs at least 30 minutes in a decanter to loosen up and settle down. Displays a dense, lively core of grilled plums, boysenberries, black raspberries, beef blood, licorice, and tar. The wonderfully rich palate, however, is thrown slightly off balance by the rather acidic and spicy finish. A really enjoyable wine nonetheless. (92 pts.)
Hey Larry, sorry I missed you at Falltacular. I was in Vegas for a friend’s bachelor party. Would have been nice to touch base and chat though.
Regarding the Saxum, I wouldn’t go so far as to say the finish was acrid, if by acrid you been sharp and bitter, but the acid coupled with the alcohol did sting a bit. I kind of wonder if that might have been resolved by a longer decant (we were in a restaurant so it wasn’t possible). I find that conspicuous acidity sometimes mellows out after a few hours.
Larry, I’ve noticed several Paso Robles wines showing a very “angular” and acidic finish with some age. We visited Terry Hoage recently and they were pouring their 2006, 2007 library wines. All but one of the wines was showing angularity and unpleasant bracing acidity after the midpalate/during the finish. I found this to be highly concerning and very much unlike some their wines in their youth. I haven’t had this with Tablas Creek’s older wines, but have Terry Hoage and Epoch (with 5-7+ years age).
I was reading an older article by Galloni recently and he noted how he was concerned with how poorly some of the older Paso Robles wines were aging. It seems like it may be a wide-spread issue and I can only assume that heavy acid additions and big alcohol could be the problem. I’d be curious to hear what some others think here. By no means am I condemning tartaric additions, but I wonder if done in excess that they may lead to questionable aging.
Difficult to know about acid adds unless you ask specific winemakers - and hopefully you get honest answers. The general chemistry of ‘riper’ wines is that they tend to have lower acids and higher pH’s . . . but there are plenty of limestone vineyards, like Russell up there, for instance, where grapes get plenty ripe but still retain a relative low pH and higher acids.
The acrid aftertaste would indicate elevated levels of volatile acidity, and no, I am NOT implying that this or any other wine has it. It’s just something that can be more noticable flavor wise sometimes rather than aromatically.
I’d be curious to hear from others about their insight into this as well.
I was trying to sort things out mentally from producer to producer. With some of the bigger wine styles or riper vintages I figured they might have had more substantial acid adds.
If it was volatile acidity, what in particular might lead a producer to have issues with it from year to year? (Or bottle to bottle).
I’m not sure if you feel comfortable speculating about someone else’s labor of love, but it’s simply an academic exercise. From my experience most quality producers in Paso Robles bottle with sufficient acidity (either naturally or additions). What might be going on in the bottle and what might be enhancing the perception of acidity over time?
Mike-
Have you noticed a big stylistic shift with Saxum the last few years? I came off the waitlist for Saxum with the 2010 Broken Stones and the alcohol was a full percentage point lower than the 2006. Maybe just the cool year or is this deliberate?