Collector Wines

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A blend of 45% Syrah, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Petit Verdot, the 2020 Estate Cuvée is another outstanding wine from L’Aventure in the challenging 2020 vintage, offering singular concentration and elegance. Deep ruby-purple, it has a pure core of cassis and slowly unfolding accents of licorice, cured meats, tobacco leaves, cedar and truffle. Full-bodied, juicy and alluring, it floods the mouth with layers of blue fruit, floral perfume and spice. It is supported by powdery tannins and boasts a tremendously long, detailed finish.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 99 RPA beguiling blend of dusty violets, crushed stone, musky black currants and grilled herbs makes the 2020 Estate Cuvée impossible to ignore. Racy yet supple, this soothes with its ripe red and black fruits while also exciting the palate through a core of zesty acidity. A staining of minerality lingers as the 2020 finishes with epic length and potency. Grippy tannins tug at the perimeters of the palate, leaving nuances of black licorice and clove to resonate. This radiant beauty has a very bright future. It’s a blend of 45% Syrah, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Petit Verdot.Vinous Media | 97 VMDark chocolate, a bit animalistic, so brooding and dark. Sumptuous texture, rich and deep yet vibrant too, this is plush and opulent but there is refinement here, you can feel the sculpting of the fruit and the tannins, there is nuance and detail to the different aspects. It’s still quite massy and bold, it’s a big style, lots going on with plenty of power and punch but a deliciously bright and lifted understone with acidity to keep it from being too heavy. Strawberry touches, blackberries, cinnamon, pepper, toast, tobacco and cocoa, all melding together with a lingering piquancy that lasts and lasts. A classic and memorable wine. Ageing 15 months in French oak (80% new, 20% one year old).Decanter | 97 DECThe 2020 Estate Cuvee is the flagship and checks in as 45% Syrah, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 15% Petit Verdot. It has a big, black-fruited bouquet with lots of graphite, smoky oak, chocolate, and chalky minerality. This carries to a full-bodied wine revealing the more savory tannins of the vintage, plenty of mid-palate flesh, sweet tannins, and a great finish. It picks up a beautiful sense of salinity with time in the glass and is unquestionably one of the top wines in this vintage.Jeb Dunnuck | 96+ JDReally impressive depth here. Violets, blueberries, blackberries, graphite, ink and chalk to the nose. Rich, voluptuous and flavorful with firm, but silky tannins. Concentrated, restrainedly plush and muscular with a lingering finish that goes on and on. 45% syrah, 40% cabernet sauvignon and 15% petit verdot.James Suckling | 96 JS

Pure perfection from this talented team, the 2021 Estate Cuvee checks in as 50% Syrah, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 20% Petit Verdot that was raised in 80% new French oak. Absolutely incredible aromatics of crème de cassis, blueberries, violets, ground pepper, and graphite give way to a full-bodied red with a seamless, elegant mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, a deep, layered mid-palate, and that rare mix of power and elegance that’s so hard to come by. It shows the pure, layered, elegant style of the vintage, and this beauty offers pleasure today yet will ideally be given 3-4 years in the cellar, and it will evolve for two decades at a minimum.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDThe 2021 Estate Cuvée (a 20th-anniversary edition) is composed of 50% Syrah, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Petit Verdot. Its aromas are highly complex and pure! Chocolate-covered cherry and crushed blueberry scents are complemented by wafts of thyme, sage, vanilla, dark spices and savory tones, plus soaring violet perfume. The full-bodied palate is polished and effortlessly balanced, offering powdery tannins, a bright spine of acidity and a tremendously long finish laced with spice and floral perfume. This elegant, expressive blend will be long lived in the cellar.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 98 RPImmediately seductive and perfumed on the nose with aromas of dark cherries, blackberries, cassis, violets, cedar and plenty of sweet oak spices. It’s full-bodied with knit-tight tannins and a velvety texture. Spicy and vibrant with poise. Good vitality with a controlled power all along. Concentrated and full of energy with a generous, peppery and berry-loaded finish. 50% syrah, 30% cabernet sauvignon and 20% petit verdot. Try after 2026.James Suckling | 97 JSThe L’Aventure vineyard is one of the sources of quality fruit in Paso, and this wine is no exception. Aromas of dark, jammy fruit dominate, and the fruit on the palate is equally assertive, with healthy doses of cedar and spice. Tannins are muscular and powdery, which will aid in the ageability – a full-bodied, authoritative Paso wine with quality at the foundation.Decanter | 95 DEC