A month or two ago I read a TN here regarding this wine and couldn’t believe that the taster thought it was open for business already. The note motivated me to open the first of a sixer I purchased on release. I popped and poured this last night and saved a little more than half for today.
This is without question the best Pax wine I have ever had, and I am a Pax fan. The first thing I wrote in my note was, “Holy Shit!” This wine is dark purple in the glass. The nose is huge, assaulting the senses with raspberry, herbs, and scorched earth. On the palate the wine impersonates a Northern Rhone Syrah. It is in no way heavy, has decent acidity and delivers a potent and penetrating mix of iron, blood, red raspberry and smoke on the palate as well as a persistent finish. Far from being a boozy, ripe Syrah, this is focused, intense, and full of flavor and nuance. I would not call it young and tight at this point. It is just a ripping wine now that should only get better in the next few years. Wow.
It has been a minute, but I opened another one of these tonight to go with some braised short ribs. Believe it or not, this is a youthful wine. Still very dark with the red fruit, grilled meat and gun metal, maybe there is a bit less acid than there was 15 years ago when I posted my note. But there is nothing tired about this wine. I am amazed how well this held up. It was a hit with Easter dinner!
I had a bunch of other Pax wines in a storage unit that I forgot about for a long time. I am pretty psyched to dig into the others now.
Pax too bad you don’t have something for the OC. If you ever decide to come down this way and wanna engage the group here with some wines and dinner, just let us know. That 2005 is one of my all-time favorite wines you’ve made.
I’ll private message you my contact info and then leave it in your court to get me when convenient for you. We have a pretty wide group of smart tasters here, many you may know from years past who would dig doing an event with you.
Popped an ‘05 Majik down in the OC at the pre-Falltacular dinner and it was smoking good. ‘05 Keltie always has touched my soul and I still have one on its’ side along with an ‘05-‘06-‘07 vertical of Griffin’s Lair waiting for an excuse. I always seem to pair Keltie with Short Ribs. They are made for each other.
Would love to join you in Red Hook but they are ripping out some remaining wisdom teeth so I suspect that I will not be able to share my remaining Mag of 2004 Agharta.
We pop lots of 2005s here at the winery, Majik, Keltie, Castelli and Walker in particular, they are all still so fresh and vibrant, really one of our best early vintages in my opinion. Glad you had a smoking good bottle Brian!
