Pax Wines Sonoma Hillsides Syrah 2021

The 2021 Syrah Sonoma Hillsides is towering and statuesque in bearing from the very first taste. I don’t think I have ever tasted a Sonoma Hillsides with this much finesse, this much purity. A wine of vertical energy, the Sonoma Hillsides possesses tremendous depth from start to finish. In many vintages the Hillsides leans towards a darker expression of Syrah. The 2021, on the other hand, is marked by more of a red/purplish fruit profile, with bright floral and citrus overtones that confer freshness. Once again, Pax Mahle made one of the truly epic wines of the year. His Sonoma Hillsides has been one of the very finest wines in Northern California for a number of years now. - By Antonio Galloni on January 2023 ©Vinous Media

As soon as the very first vintage of this wine was released in 2017 it began making waves in the wine community and we were honored by a 100 point score by Antonio Galloni of Vinous in April 2017. As three more vintages have come and gone, this blend is becoming a reference point of its own for Syrah in the New World. Each harvest brings its own unique challenges and in 2020, plagued by wildfire smoke, we were not able to put this wine into bottle. 2021 redeemed this disappointment in every way.

The combination of an exceptional growing season in 2021 and drought-exacerbated concentration of flavor led to fruit of remarkable quality and we’ve been singing the praises of the wines from this vintage from the start. We are releasing the soon-to-be-legendary 2021 Sonoma Hillsides Syrah first and foremost to our Wine Club & mailing list to ensure that our biggest supporters have access to this wine before the word spreads and it is long gone. This vintage will go on to be one of the most coveted that we’ve produced yet.