Ashamed to say I drank this alone with a modest shrimp/scallop stir fry. The doubts about the 04 Saxums led me astray.
I’ll cut to the chase. A sick wine. Power, intensity, purity and incredible balance. Wonderful fruit concentration. A great, 96+ point wine.
No doubt whatsoever about this 04 Saxum. This is a wine that you reserve for when Barack and Michelle come to visit. You don’t squander it on a casual dinner for yourself. I won’t pretend to be able to tell the difference between a 97 point wine and a 100 point wine - but you get the idea.
Mike - I’ve had a bunch of the 04 Saxum’s…double decanted, popped n poured, decanted 4-24 hours and I can nail them blind each time. It’s a wine that just doesn’t float my boat…but that’s why we love wine…it is so subjective. unlike the Dodgers and Giants…the Dodgers are so superior it isnt even funny…
Ditto. Love to try them … and like Tony, I have tried many. Normally I just hand them to the non wine drinker at the table and watch them go gaga. The curious thing is that many people whom my palate normally aligns with, love these wines. Last time I had the 04 Bone Rock, I just put wood syrup.
I am shocked. I didn’t know anyone didn’t like these wines. Saxum and Alban are at the top of the California Rhone hierarchy for me. There are many others I love (Carlisle, Pax, Ojai), but these 2 have delivered multiple profound experiences.
I love Saxum, but certain 04s (apparently not the Bone Rock) have been inconsistent. Haven’t heard many negative views about subsequent Saxum vintages.
That seems to be the general consensus. I look forward to trying some with a little more age on them … and to be honest I have never sat down and drank a bottle at home with the family. That is the true test. So who wants to hook me up with a bottle
I have had the wines every vintage from 2001, which was a well made but ultimately boring wine. At sub $20, I would have been happy but at $45 at the time there just wasn’t any complexity.
The 04’s I have nailed blind every time. They all seem to be deeply fruited with an unmistakable “peachy” quality to me and I just don’t care for that in red wine. I do like Alban though…
Great note…fwiw I think it a good thing to sometimes escape into a bottle like that. Agree on the 04s,seem to be going from strength to strength. So far, the 06s are my fav, but the 05s will be very good indeed. One of my absolute favorites, but I can see why folks wouldn’t like em.
They are really big wines and can be over the top for some. I think there are folks out there who like Syrahs in the opposite direction, like an Edmunds St John or Peay.
I am definitely in the “love Saxum” camp. However, I am also one of the unlucky ones who has had some bad '04 bottles, in my case it was Bone Rock, and it was nothing like the Saxums I have had from other vintages. Justin Smith didn’t hesitate to replace my bad bottles with '05’s, which I appreciated very much.
I too like the 2004. Having the good fortune to taste all the Bone Rocks back to 2000 just over a month ago, the bookends were the best for me (2000 and 2004). The 2005 was also out but I was not thrilled over it, as it had virtually no decant time, which I am sure it would need. I will say the 2003 was not so good and I am glad that I traded my 2003s away some time ago.
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