Syrah Alder Springs
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 5–15 years from vintage release.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Roasted lamb with rosemary, grilled venison, wild mushroom stew
✨ Technical Specifications
Perched in the rugged, wild terrain of northern Mendocino County, the Alder Springs Vineyard is a testament to extreme viticulture. Founded by Stuart Bewley in the late 1990s, this legendary site features steep, sandstone-rich slopes rising up to 2,700 feet above sea level, where cool Pacific breezes clash with intense high-altitude sunlight. Pax Mahle harnesses this dramatic terroir to craft a Syrah of exceptional tension and complexity. Embracing traditional, minimalist winemaking, the fruit undergoes whole-cluster fermentation with native yeasts and is aged in neutral French oak. The resulting wine is celebrated for its signature cool-climate profile, balancing dark, brambly fruit with savory notes of cracked black pepper, cured meat, and wild chaparral.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 2000 by Pax and Pam Mahle, Pax Wines emerged as an influential champion of cool-climate California viticulture, initially earning renown for single-vineyard expressions of Syrah. Operating out of an urban winery and tasting cellar in Sebastopol's Barlow district, the domaine collaborates closely with growers across coastal Sonoma County, Mendocino, and the Sierra Foothills. Viticulture centers on organically and sustainably farmed heritage plots, frequently anchored in fractured shale, marine sandstone, and decomposed granite. While early vintages leaned rich and assertive, Pax evolved toward an uncompromising low-intervention ethos characterized by whole-cluster foot stomping, spontaneous fermentations driven by ambient yeasts, neutral French oak aging, and minimal sulfur. Beyond benchmark Syrah bottlings such as Alder Springs, Griffin's Lair, and Castelli-Knight Ranch, the portfolio explores esoteric and heritage white varieties, notably old-vine Chenin Blanc, Vermentino, and Pinot Blanc, celebrated for their tensile acidity, savory transparency, and mineral cut.
🍇 Grapes
Syrah