Hey all, posted about serving order/decanting of these yesterday and it got deleted after 8 hours. Assuming because the main portion was decanting. There was some great feedback in that thread so wanted to follow up.

Ended up opening the 2014 about 4 hours before my buddy and his wife arrived. Had a sip and decided to recork. It's a big wine for sure but wasn't overly tight where I felt it needed a lot of time. The Pax on the other hand definitely needed to breath a little and let some funk blow off.

We started with the Syrah and some bruschetta and it was fantastic. Expectedly different from a lot of the big inky dark Syrahs (which I love as well). Lots of fruit on the nose, berries, almost jammy but not quite. And on the palate it switches up, Tart blackberry, very bright, herbs, peppery, with a good amount of funky. Very excited to grab some more bottles. It's a syrah that I feel would be perfect to chill just a little and sit outside on a hot summer evening and crush. Complex, big, and bright at the same time.

Opened the 2014 about for about an hour and a half before we drank and let it open up, put it back in the bottle and decanted the 2004 for about an hour. We had both together with a cacio e pepe. Both were great, the tannins on the 2004 felt they had totally integrated, especially compared to the big 2014. 2004 still had lots of fruit and secondary more earthy notes starting to show. Both showed Howell Mountain dark fruits and graphite minerality. If you love Howell Mountain wines, you'll love these. The tannins on the 2014 are finer than most Napa cabs I've had around the same age. It was great to see a wine with approachable tannins young and that they still hold the 2004 together.

Have about a glass left of the 2014 I'll be finishing tonight, looking forward to see how it is after a day.

We spent the night sipping and booking meals/tastings for our trip to Calistoga later in the year. If anyone has any food/coffee recommendations that are walkable in Calistoga please let me know!