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Wine heavyweights buy 65 hectares of what some call California’s best Syrah vines
Pax Mahle, winemaker and owner of Pax Wines, and Baron Ziegler, owner of Marine Layer Wines, have purchased 162 acres of prized Syrah vines that comprise what many consider to be the foremost Syrah vineyard in California.
Baron Ziegler, who also owns the importer Valkyrie Selections and Pax Mahle intend to keep the name of the Halcón Vineyard in Mendocino County, California both for the vineyard and the resulting wine label, per SFChronicle.
And the pair have lofty ambitions for Halcón (which translates as ‘Hawk’ in English).
“The idea is to make the Pierre Gonon of Northern California,” Ziegler said. “One epic wine. Boom. All Syrah.”
For Mahle, who has cultivated a reputation as a fine maker of Syrah, the venture will represent the first vineyard he has owned – though interestingly he has worked with grapes from the Halcón vineyard in the past.
Mahle describes the style of Syrah Halcón has become renowned for by industry insiders as “savory, mineral and muscular.” The duo intend to stay true to that legacy moving forwards.
Though terms of the deal have not been made available, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Mahle and Ziegler are 50/50 partners in the venture.
The Halcón Vineyard is described by The Rhone Report as, “Sitting at an altitude of 2,500ft, this is one of the highest vineyards in California and features an incredibly cool, windy terroir that produces a concentrated, mineral, and blue fruit driven Syrah.”
Under its previous owners, Paul and Jackie Gordon, Halcón sold fruit to other winemakers as well as making its own wines, but Mahle and Ziegler will be keeping all the vineyard’s grapes for the production of their own wine.
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