Pasxa: New wine project from Bryant (former) / Force Majeure Winemaker

Full disclosure: I am friends with winemaker Todd Alexander and make my white wines in his winery. I have not tried the Pasxa wines, but it looks like owner Mike Martin (of The Walls) has put together a fantastic team.

The first release is 2 different Syrahs and one Grenache from the Rocks district of Milton Freewater. They are $85/ea or the mixed 3 pack is $240.
They have received great reviews and one of the Syrahs is sold out already.
I’ll report back after I try the wine.
Cheers!

Sounds good! If I have any money left after Berserker Day, there’s a good chance I’ll pick up!

Learned about this project today, from Tom Lee’s Zinfandel Chronicles. I’m a big fan of Force Majeure, so the wines definitely sound tasty. However, the bottles appear to have an odd shape, which might make them difficult to stack/fit in a wine fridge. Anyone have any experience with this bottle shape, which you can see by following the link in Travis’ post?

My notes on the wines are here - Exciting Debut Wines from Pàšxa | Zinfandel Chronicles

I think the wines will be better in the vintages to come when Todd is involved from start to finish in the winemaking process. If I understand correctly he came in some time well after harvest of the 18 vintage so he had no influence on oak treatment, etc.

Below is a pic of the bottles.

Tom Lee
IMG_0050-scaled-e1611239390498.jpg

How do you think this compares with other Rocks District Syrahs? I’m familiar with K Vintners, Reynvaan, and Cayuse, and I love what I’ve had so far.

Have to admit a slight pet peeve for winery names I have no idea how to pronounce.

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Paw Shu.

Tom

I think subsequent vintages like 19 and 20 will compare well to Rocks District favorites like Cayuse and Reynvaan.

Tom

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“Pahk-sha”

Taken from their about page.

Gesundheit!

Have liked The Walls since the beginning and particularly their Concrete Mama. I ready to give this new brand a chance. I do however feel like it is trying to emulate the Force Majeure Model, which is not my favorite structure. Don’t get me wrong, the wines are great, but I assume the prices will continue to climb annually and will have minimal connection to the consumer. My experience with The Walls has been nothing but positive, so I will hold-out hope that they can maintain some of that.

Just a quick thought on the name: I am curious if there was any discussion with the Tribe in which this language belongs to and how they feel about the use of it? I would love to see some philanthropic connection to giving back to Native Tribes in the area.

I look forward to seeing how this brand evolves. Their investment in Milton-Freewater Vineyard land seems to speak to their commitment to the project.

All good points, I did notice FM upped their Red Mountain Syrah by 15 bucks this year after the big Jeb scores. I will say that I think theres still alot of value in FM (as well as this venture) with Todd at the helm.

Jeb just hung some big #’s in the 2018’s. Friend of mine just cracked one open and enjoyed it. So I ordered a 3 pack. Let’s see!

I’m hoping to see some notes from consumers. I love Rocks Dist. Syrah, but I’ve never had anything from this winemaker.

Tried the river rock vyd shortly after arrival as I had an extra bottle after a friend declined part of a shared order. Typical WW rocks terroir was present but somewhat restrained, and not at all as up front as it is in Cayuse or Reynvaan. Somewhat more in the style of Rotie, Gramercy or the better Va Piano estate syrahs. Tom Lee’s more detailed notes were accurate, as usual. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt now, but this was not in the league of the best of the best coming from the Rocks District and seems a little ambitiously priced. Gave it a 4 out of 5. Cheers.

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Steve, 4/5 is great. Not great hearing “this was not in the league of the best of the best coming from the Rocks District and seems a little ambitiously priced.” I suppose those must be 5/5’s! Which specific wines do you feel are drastically better???

JD giving some solid scores to the 2019s. Argh sorry, didn’t see someone else already mentioned that. Anyways picked up one of each of the remaining 2018s to try them out.

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JD giving some solid scores to the 2019s. Argh sorry, didn’t see someone else already mentioned that. Anyways picked up one of each of the remaining 2018s to try them out.

River Rock Vineyard is always solid. What scores did he give them? No data on these wines on Cellar Tracker yet. One person gave a 93 with no notes so no data yet. I would love to try these wines!

It was very good/excellent, just not as strong as the most exciting wines I’ve had from the Rocks. Those would include several Cayuse (Armada, Cailloux), Reynvaan (top vintages of Stonessence and In the Rocks), and a few bottles that had developed amazingly from Sleight of Hand (Funkadelic). I’d put those wines up against Syrah from anywhere in the world so admittedly that’s a lofty comparison.

From 2018 both Syrah are 97 and Grenache at 95