It has aromas of wild strawberry, blackberry, and black pepper. In the mouth, the aroma of ripe pomegranate and blueberry gives the wine a complex aftertaste. Drink it slightly chilled and it is perfect for the hot summer. You can enjoy this new type of wine. Valdiguier is a grape variety that was known as Napa Gamay in California because of its similar color and flavor to Gamay in the Beaujolais region of France. It originated in the Sud-Ouest region of France. It is known locally as Gros Auxerrois.
Although the fully ripened Gros Auxerrois is deep in color, it has a low alcohol content and produces a flavorful, spicy wine. The fully ripened grapes can retain their acidity and the alcohol content does not increase too much, so it can be said that this grape variety is suitable for California, where the sunshine is long. No sulfites were added during the brewing process. Pax is a fresh family-run winery that started in 2000. The owners, Pax and Pam Marley, each dreamed of becoming a master sommelier. They studied hard every day, met at a study group with like-minded friends, and fell in love. Pax grew up in a family that had nothing to do with wine, and majored in art history at university. While working part-time at a restaurant and thinking about his future, he eventually became deeply interested in the history of the drink known as "wine". During a trip to France together to study wine, he was completely fascinated by the relationship between grapes, people, and the soil, and the culture of "wine" that is deeply rooted in Europe. In 1997, the two moved to California and decided to make a living in the wine industry. Later, Pax was appointed wine buyer at Dean & DeLuca, and, based on his knowledge of European wine, he was inspired by another genre of drink, California wine. Among them, the most shocking to Pax was Syrah, and he began to realize that if California's Pauillac is Oakville and Pomerol is Carneros' Merlot, there is no California Syrah that can compare to Northern Rhone. Then, in 2000, he started Pax Wine Cellars with the aim of making Syrah from a vineyard that he felt had a fateful encounter with. What these vineyards have in common is that they are all in the cool environment of Sonoma County and Mendocino, and they can produce wines that are full-bodied and delicately expressive. The Pax brand, which attacked the niche angle, gained momentum, and Pax and Pam started the Wind Gap brand in 2006 with investors. If Pax is a brand that specializes in Syrah and Rhone varieties, Wind Gap is a hip brand that releases not only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but also unfamiliar grape varieties such as Trousseau Gris and Valdiguier, and is full of playfulness. However, due to disagreements with investors, in 2018, he decided to withdraw from the Wind Gap brand and focus on his own Pax brand. Currently, Pax produces Syrah, which has a texture and freshness reminiscent of Northern Rhone, as well as rare varieties such as Trousseau Gris and Valdiguier, which were handled during the Wind Gap era. The style is unmistakably "New California", and no pesticides or substances that do not exist in nature are put into the fields, and the wine is made naturally by fermenting it naturally with indigenous yeast and minimizing the addition of sulfites.