2010 Broken Stones

Saxum's 2010s are just as beautiful from bottle as they were from barrel. A recent tasting found the 2010s in fine form, although some of the wines will require another year or two in bottle to fully come together. Overall, the 2010s capture an attractive stylistic middle ground at Saxum. They have plenty of ripeness and depth, but with some of the cooler weather, mineral-driven inflections that are the hallmark of the vintage. Readers may also want to take a look at my videos on the 2010s, posted in two parts; Part 1 and Part 2

According to Justin Smith "it was pretty much impossible to get really dark fruit qualities" from his vineyards in 2010 as well as in 2011.Smith is very keen on the 2011 vintage, by the way, although "most people are going to trash the wines for not being massive enough."He said that he's more than happy with the character of vintages 2010 and '11 "because it means that people will be able to see that our wines can be fresh and energetic, not just powerful."There's much more work being done with concrete vats here now, and Smith stopped working with small oak with the 2010 vintage, which he thinks will "strengthen the fruit and minimize the tannins" in his wines.He related a piece of good and interesting news, telling me that the Heart Stone vineyard, which had been put up for sale, was purchased by a "mailing list guy" who heard that it might slip away from Saxum's control and then snapped it up so that he could lease the site to Smith.I had the chance to taste all of these wines from freshly opened bottles in Smith's winery alongside bottles that had been opened exactly three days earlier as he wanted to prove that they benefit enormously from aeration, a point that I'll vouch for without reservation.Pop and pour with young wines is a crime against Bacchus here.

I have been looking forward to tasting the Saxum 2010s since I saw several component wines from barrel last year. Justin and Heather Smith, along with Eric Jensen at Booker, Matt Trevisan and Linne- Calodo, Cris Cherry at Villa Creek and a handful of other growers, represent the cutting edge of the adventurous, pioneering spirit that is the essence of Paso Robles, and also in many ways, the heart of what makes the United States a great country. Take it from someone who spends a lot of time in Europe every year, this level of ambition is rare in the world. Saxum fans will be thrilled to learn that with the 2010 vintage Justin and Heather Smith have introduced a new wine to their lineup, the Syrah-based Terry Hoage Vineyard. For the last few years, Hoage fruit has found its way into the Bone Rock, but 2010 is the first year the Smiths had enough fruit to warrant a separate bottling. Justin Smith describes 2010 as the coldest year he had ever seen, until 2011. Although 2010 was a cold year, Smith says he still got the ripeness levels he looks for, it just took a lot more time because the growing season turned out to be very long. In 2011, however, ripeness levels never reached the typical range here, and consequently the wines are all about 1% lower in alcohol. The 2010 vintage also signals a bit of a stylistic shift at Saxum. Concrete tanks were first introduced with the 2009 vintage, but in 2010 about 50% of the fruit was fermented in concrete, while the Grenache for the James Berry Vineyard bottling was vinified and aged partly in concrete. In 2011, Smith added one more concrete tank, for the Heart Stone, the first Saxum wine to be vinified and aged exclusively in concrete. The 2010 Terry Hoage, Paderewski and James Berry were bottled in late May 2012, while the remainder of the wines were scheduled to be bottled in August 2012. For more on Saxum, readers may want to take a look at my video interview with Justin Smith on our website. Once all of the 2010s are in bottle I will re taste the wines and post an update on our site.