2014 Wilde Farm Syrah Halcon Vineyard 750 ml

Pax Mahle, Northern California’s Undisputed Syrah Master

Pax Mahle is the undisputed king of Syrah from California’s north coast. From 2000 to 2008 at Pax Cellars he accumulated TWENTY-THREE 95+ scores from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

Parker himself penned the following no-holds-barred homage:

“What this young former wine consultant at the Dean and Deluca store in St. Helena has accomplished in less than five years is remarkable. Producing some of the most delicious Syrahs to emerge from Northern California....”  Mahle now has a new winery, Wind Gap, dedicated precisely to this style. But in the 2014 growing season, the clearest and most brilliant expression of Mahle’s new signature Syrah style came off Halcón Vineyard, through Wilde Farm Wines, where Mahle is winemaker.

Perched at 2,500 feet in the Yorkville Highlands’ Mendocino appellation, Halcón is one of the highest vineyards in California. Dig up a handful of the vineyard’s low-rigor mica-schist, fractured shale, and quartz-rich rock, run a soil analysis, and you might be able to trick a geologist into thinking they’re looking at Côte-Rôtie.

At this blustery, high-altitude site, it’s Survival of the Fittest for vines, situated in fast-draining, thin chaparral in which little else grows. Rows running NNW-SSE are densely planted, forcing plants to compete for nutrients and water and sending roots deep into the land. Under these conditions, yields are small, and berries and clusters stiller smaller — and absolutely exquisite.

“The 2014 Syrah Halcón Vineyard takes things to another level,” declared Vinous’ Antonio Galloni, who went on to call this wine “terrific” and “super-expressive” before lobbing on a rave 93 points. Once again, Mahle is catnip for the critics.

Opaque purple. Gorgeous aromatically and quite Hermitage-like, featuring a mix of luscious currant, wild cherry, tobacco, and sweet herbes de Provence. The attack is concentrated yet chiseled, the ripe fruit core powerful, vibrant, and high-toned, packed with red-fruit confection. A persistent, electric finish.

93 points from a floored Antonio Galloni. $37 for the last 600 bottles, a pittance for sensational Rhône brilliance from the peaks of California’s Yorkville Highlands. Two roads diverged — Pax Mahle took the one less traveled by, and it’s made all the difference. Shipping included on 4.