Obviously, I opened this too early. I decanted it for about 2 hours before drinking, but this is still a young, primary beast of a wine. The nose is reluctant now, but it gives off notes of dark fruit. The wine is almost black in the glass, and it presents with crushed rocks, grilled meat and tar. I can’t help but wonder what a glorious wine this will be in five years, when everything integrates and the tannins soften. As a matter of fact, it is pretty damned good today.
So why did I open this now? Of course I expected this particular Pax bottling to be too young. But the mailer for the 2007 Obsidian came out recently, and I thought I should at least think about whether a $75 price tag made sense. There is no doubt that the 2006 version of this wine is great , and I expect that the 2007 version will also be great. But yesterday I polished off a 2007 Copain Baker Ranch Syrah that was easily in the same ballpark as this wine for $30. In this economy, $75 is too much for me to pay with the range of qpr alternatives out there.
maybe, maybe i open a 2004 this winter but i get your motives. rethinking a lot of wine purchases myself.
I have 5 more, and now that I have satisfied my scientific curiosity I am thinking 2011 is the next check-point for this. Pretty sure my teeth will still be purple by then.
I hear you Brad, I have so much 2005 and 2006 Pax that i will be holding for years there’s no way i could buy anymore at those ridiculous prices.
Has anyone tried any of the Wind Gap wines, Pax Mahle’s new label?
Have not tried them myself, but the notes I have seen have been positive and suggest that fans of lower alcohol, less ripeness and more acidity will like the wines. I am interested.
I’ve had the Brosseau Chardonnay. It is a wonderful wine. I don’t usually drink whites but I wish I had ordered more.
or their ridiculous bottle sizes that make storage a pain in the butt
Great note, Brad.
What I have found is that Syrah delivers what is almost impossible for Cab to, and thats value, or QPR. Many of the $75 Syrahs are ridiculous when there is such wonderful stuff available under $45.
I just purchased a case of the 2006 K Vintners MCK Syrah. $27 per bottle.
I have a discussion with my friend and wine seller, Brian yesterday about the fact that this stuff (from Washington) just sites on the shelves and are such a tough sell. There has been much talk on these boads about such, and I just don’t get it. Don’t get me wrong, PAX are very nice, but it better be ground moving to warrant 2X the price. I do find joy in their under $50 line-up though.
I would expect to find this wine for close to $30 in the very near future, Brad…so there is still hope.
In fairness, they did reduce the bottle size for the late-bottled 2006s, and all 2007s have smaller bottles. But before that, I agree with your point 100%. I have been storing Pax .750s in magnum spots. Bad space utilization.
As for the rest of the responses, I agree there is a qpr bonanza to be had with domestic Syrah. $75 is an unnecessarily high price to pay for all but the most amazing examples. Dan, if you can get me more Obsidian 2006 for around $30, I’ll be a faithful customer for life.
I second that motion!!
I do love pax wines, they are just a tough price to pay directly from the winery. I do buy the bottlings that are tougher to get at retail directly such as 06 Richards but the rest I try to scoop up elsewhere. I have also been buying my fair share from other board members and retail as the prices have really plummeted on these. Back filling a fair amount of 04 and 05’s for under 45ish.
Tell you what, you can become loyal with me but call the winery first, tell them you would like to buy a few cases of this stuff at like $35/btl (I am sure you can sell them here for cost) and see if Joe Donelan will cut you a break.
I opened another one of these two nights ago and polished it off last night. This wine has changed significantly in the year-and-a-half since I started this thread. Still very young, the wine is no longer hard and unapproachable and opens up nicely after a few hours of air. It is full of blackberry, pepper, and crushed rocks (reminds me of wet granite). Mouth-filling, potent and with great length, this is rounding into a very impressive Syrah.
I have four left from my six-pack now. I plan to revisit this in another year or two.