Basic Info

Monte Rio Cellars is a passion project between winemaker Pax Mahle (Pax Cellars, Wind Gap) and acclaimed sommelier Patrick Cappiello. With over 25 years of experience in the restaurant industry, Patrick’s wine career has given him access to four of the world’s greatest wine cellars. All have been recipients of Wine Spectator’s "Grand Award"; TriBeCa Grill, Veritas, GILT, and Pearl & Ash. Patrick was named "Sommelier of the Year 2014" by Food & Wine Magazine, "Wine Person of the Year 2014" by Imbibe Magazine, and "Sommelier of the Year 2015" by Eater National. Pax and Pam Mahle moved to wine country in 1997 to pursue careers in wine. After a few years of tasting and sourcing wine from all over California for Dean & Deluca, Pax Wine Cellars was launched in 2000. The Mahles decided to make a bold choice by favoring the “untapped potential” of the Syrah grape. The entire lineup of wines came from cool climate vineyards in Sonoma County and Mendocino. The wines went on to be highly sought after and quickly established Pax as one of California’s premier producers of Syrah. Pax’s 2016 Sonoma-Hillsides Syrah was recently rated a perfect 100 points by Antonio Galloni’s Vinous.