2022 L'Aventure Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
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Tasting notes
55% Syrah, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Petit Verdot. Late-season heatwave: 10 days at over 40 °C from 31 August. Harvest 26 August to 3 October. Aged for 21 months in 83% new French oak, 17% second-use French oak with malolactic conversion in barrel. Bottled without fining or filtration July 2024. Light nose but well-balanced palate with all the ingredients well integrated. Dry but not drying finish. A sensible hand on the tiller here, with lots of potential for further, more subtle development. (JR)
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Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
55% Syrah, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Petit Verdot. Medium verging on deep purple. Fresh, berry-driven nose. Nice floral lift to the palate and intense, layered, ripe tannin that steadily builds on top of the bright acidity. Super-tight. I'd wait on this. (SCJ)
Renamed due to confusion in the market (largely in the export market), the 2022 Estate Reserve checks in as 55% Syrah, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Petit Verdot that will spend 18 months 70% new French oak. It has a beautiful dark purple hue as well as a great perfume of cassis and black raspberry fruits, ground pepper, violets, graphite, and hints of chalky minerality. It's rich, full-bodied, has beautiful mid-palate depth and concentration, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It’s going to be one of the longer-lived wines in the vintage.
Darkly floral, the 2022 Estate Reserve smolders up with an array of dried roses and violets, crushed ashen stones, currants and hints of blood orange. Cool-toned and classic in feel, this saturates the senses with masses of ripe red and black fruit as fine-grained tannins slowly mount toward the close. It tapers off classically dry and structured while leaving a minty freshness that keeps the taster looking back to the glass for more. This is a model of balance, yet just a baby today. Tasted from barrel. The Estate Reserve was previously labeled as Estate Cuvée.
About the producer
L’Aventure is one of the leading wine estates in Paso Robles, California. It was founded by Stephan Asseo and his wife Beatrice who left their native France in 1997 in search of a place to make wine without the restrictions of France’s appellation system.