Pax Wine Cellars
2004 Cuvee Keltie Syrah North Coast
California, North Coast
Wine Tasting Note:
Initially, this was too hot and closed directly out of the bottle. After a one hour decant: blackberry and mint on the nose. The nose had a bit too much alcohol to enjoy. 11 years in the bottle and still plenty of structure with medium-high tannins and acidity. As you would expect, the freshness of the fruit is gone. The palate is of blackberry, black currant and bitter dark chocolate with a short finish. The alcohol is evident, but not over-whelming. The big winner here is the mouth-feel. A beautiful Northern Rhone kind of character that starts a little oily and finishes with mouth-coating, grainy tannins that were a little to the rustic side of velvetty. This wine has the structure to sit in the cellar much longer, but the fruit will not last. Best drinking window is/was probably 2012-2016. I have seen other recent tasting notes that describes a fruit-forward wine with a sweet finish. This bottle was very dry and had a subdued fruit character.
All-in-all a nice effort to produce an age-able, structured Syrah with a Rhone feel. This would have been a 95+ wine, if the alcohol component had been more balanced against the total profile.
