2007 Pax "Walker Vine Hill Vineyard" Russian River Valley Syrah

93 points Robert Parker: "The 2007 Pax Cellars Syrah Walker Vine Hill (100% Syrah, 40% whole clusters) is a beauty. A big, dense Syrah, it exhibits abundant aromas of creme de cassis, acacia flowers, pepper, meat juice, and a smoky barbecue character. Substantial, succulent, and opulent, it displays a flamboyant, full-bodied style that is hard to resist. Consume it during its first decade of life. " (02/10)  92 points from Wine Spectator Insider: "Deliciously rich and layered, pure and focused, with complex spice, wild berry, blackberry, huckleberry and blueberry flavors that are firm and full-bodied, gaining a pleasant earthy flavor on the finish. Drink now through 2017." (Dec. 9, 2009) The last Pax vintage made by the winery namesake, Pax Mahle, this was bottled by the new winemaker, Tyler Thomas (DRC, Aubert de Village, HDV). The Walker Vine Hill vineyard is a small, sandy-soiled site tucked into a bowl formed by three small, sloping hills. The site produced a wine that has bright red fruit, fennel, roasted meat and mineral notes with a well-textured body that is enhanced by stem inclusion. Firm and pure, this is another wine for the cellar. It will benefit at least five years of patience for all of the subtler nuances of the site to shine through.

2007 Turley Zinfandel Howell Mountain Cedarman

90.5 points Cellar Tracker: "As always, a mind-boggling array of Zinfandels and Petite Syrahs has been produced by the world's premier Zinfandel specialist, Larry Turley.  He deserves remarkable credit for this "holy grail" quest to locate largely forgotten parcels of old Zinfandel vines, and preserve as many of these historic sites as possible.  Like most Zinfandels, Turley's are best drunk during their first 5-6 years of life, although in certain vintages, some wines can handle a decade worth of cellaring.  However, the glory of ZInfandel is its youthful, exuberant, flamboyant, spicy, peppery, briery fruit.  It will not achieve greater complexity or flavor dimension by extended cellaring.  All of these ZInfandels come from dry-farmed vineyards, a majority of them being old head-pruned sites planted by Italian immigrants in the late 19th century.  The wines are aged in 20% new French oak, and are bottled with little clarification."