L Aventure Cote a Cote Paso Robles Red 2019 750ml

Paso Robles is known for being the California wine region with few rules, and they like it that way there. It gives winemakers the freedom to follow their instincts rather than expectations or tradition. This mindset, along with the fantastic soils that sit under the vineyards of the Central California Coast region, make Paso just right for L’Aventure and its owner/winemaker Stephan Asseo.

Trained in France where he owned a winery in Bordeaux, Asseo felt confined by the rules of the region. So he left France and searched the globe for the right terroir for his next vineyards and winery, a region where he could craft world-class wine under his own rules. Asseo and his wife Beatrice decided Paso Robles was right for them, and they began their adventure making some of Paso’s finest wines in 1998.

The L’Aventure Optimus 2019 is primarily made of estate-grown Syrah with some Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot blended in. These grapes thrive in the calcareous soils of Paso Robles, created from millions of years of marine bones, shells, diatoms, and plankton turning into limestone. Under those soils sit clay, metals, and quartz. 

A long growing season with heavy diurnal shifts benefits the grapes that go into Optimus, too. After the grapes are harvested at their optimal ripeness, they undergo alcoholic fermentation in 89% new French oak and 11% 1-year-old French oak with full malolactic fermentation.

Aging: 14 months in barrel (41% 1-year-old French oak, 29% new French oak, 18% in concrete tank, and 12% in amphora)

34% Grenache, 34% Syrah, and 32% Mourvedre.