Saxum G2 Vineyard 2020

The 2020 G2 Vineyard, which comes from a great vineyard on the west side of Paso Robles, is based largely on Grenache but includes 21% Mourvèdre, 14% Graciano, 11% Syrah, and 2% Carignan. It shows the denser, chewier style of the vintage but has rocking levels of black fruits, charcoal, peppery herbs, and leather. Full-bodied and concentrated on the palate, it offers good tannins and outstanding length.

I was able to taste three vintages from Saxum, the late release 2019s from bottle, the majority of the 2020 lineup from barrel, and a handful of 2021 barrel samples. As I wrote last year, the 2019s are just brilliant, ripe, hedonistic, magical wines, and these late releases only reinforce that opinion. Looking at the 2020s, this is clearly a challenging vintage, with many wines having subtle smoky nuances and firmer yet still ripe tannins. Justin commented that the lab numbers regarding smoke taint were very low, so I think these are safe wines that will offer plenty of pleasure, although this is not a vintage to hide in the cellar. The 2021s that I was able to taste were terrific, and this will clearly be another terrific vintage here. In addition, they’ve planted a new vineyard located just four miles off the Pacific, the Cayucos Ridge Vineyard, and I expect we’ll see more releases from that site in the future.