- 2012 Wind Gap Wines Syrah Majik Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (1/5/2026)
Thought I had drunk up all my bottles of this, but found one more. Pretty amazing how much flavor can be packed into an 11.4% alcohol Syrah! It’s surprisingly not as acid-focused at the 2013 Nellessen I opened the prior night, and it’s showing more direct dark berry fruit. It’s also more in the olive tapenade mode rather than meat and wood smoke. Either way it’s a savory Syrah that is showing the core of the grape. Pretty amazing what can happen in the Sonoma Coast.
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Some of those Wind Gap low ABV syrah were ringers for Grenache tasted blind.
Cool stuff.
Eh? That’s never been a comparison I would have made.
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I gotta try this!
They are very unique. I didn’t care for them at first but they have grown on me like a fungus.
I think his current Majik Vineyard Syrahs are still around 12%.
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They really take at least 10 years to get their act together. We drank the 2013 Majik Tuesday night. It was lovely! It had plenty of structure and good fruit. The remains were even better last night. 
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- 2013 Wind Gap Wines Syrah Majik Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (9/18/2017)
Blind. Guessed zin.
Darn, reading my previous tasting note I struggled the same because of the Zinfandel quality of this wine. The pepper note screamed Syrah but the fruit leaned towards Zin. A really enjoyable wine and great with the wood fired pizzas. - 2013 Wind Gap Wines Syrah Majik Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (1/11/2016)
Blind. Guessed Syrah and Copin ( I thought correctly), more on that later.
Good clarity and light garnet color, like a medium light Pinot. Hum... Nose is red fruit but can't tell if it's cherry or berries. Off to taste which heads me down the Zinfandel path more than Pinot. There's definitely a high quality zin fruit note here with cherry but the other moving pieces say keep digging. It doesn't have the weight or intensity of a big California Syrah but something is there... It's cool climate regardless so I call Copain Syrah, the only producer I've tasted pushing the Syrah envelope down that far and producing great wine. ( add Pax to the list) This is a delicious and elegant Syrah. - 2012 Wind Gap Wines Syrah Majik Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (9/7/2015)
Medium dark purple color. Big nose. Mint and roasted coffee. Palate has a fresh cut redwood note and herbs. The fruit does show as grape and primarily on the backend. Very long finish and nice acid.
Posted from CellarTracker
Now I have to dig out one of the 2005 Majik library bottles I bought from Pax several years ago.
You should save that for when I visit.
We will celebrate Riesling and low-abv reds. 
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Note that that 2005 was a bit of an ‘outlier’ for that vineyard - I believe it came in just under 15% ABV vs much lower numbers most other years.
I remember tasting the 04 out of barrel in 2006 IIRC - and it was the antitheses of everything else he was doing at the time - but very much in line with Pax 2.0
Cheers
Label clearly says 12%. Are you implying something? 
Oooops - had it backwards - the 04 was nearly 15% and I had the 05 out of barrel :-). Sorry about that.
And I believe the actual ABV on that 05 was even lower than 12% - @Pax_Mahle ?
Cheers
Hey Larry- Yes 2004 was the first crop at Majik (one single barrel produced that we gifted to mailing list customers) and a very hot year and I believe it was the highest in sugar we have gotten the grapes (for those two obvious reasons) until 2024 - which was picked at the highest sugar in the vineyards history (25.5) not intentionally but that’s where it ended up when we picked it- 
To answer your question- off the top of my head I think the 2005 Majik was just barely 12.0% at bottling. That is where it sort of maxed out sugar wise for the last 20 years- some years a much “riper” 20/21 brix than others but sugar development peaks there - it is a very cold coastal site - that has been dry farmed since 2012 and yields are about 1.25 tons per acre with a 6x4 spacing…
~Pax
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I really liked the Wind Gap wines.
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Me too, though the last couple of vintages were quite variable. 2008-2013 were amazing.
Definitely going to add them to my Wine-searcher alerts. Is Majik the only low-abv site?
Nellesson Vineyard from Wind Gap.
Griffins Lair vineyard is more structured and bold in my experience
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When Pax bottles Nellessen separately (it has often been in the Sonoma Hillsides blend) it’s pretty low ABV.
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Add Armagh to your list.
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