2020 L'Aventure Côte à Côte
Producer: L'Aventure
Region: Paso Robles, CA
Country: USA
Grapes: 51% Grenache, 26% Mourvedre, 23% Syrah
Vintage: 2018
ABV: 15.50
Vivino: 4.3
Drink By: 2035
Occasional Wine Note: We love GSMs! GSMs, the Rhone blend usually composed of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre, are great for any occasion. These are easy drinking crowd pleasers. Paso Robles is perhaps the best region in the world, at least outside of the Rhone Valley in France, for Rhone blends. L’Aventure is, at least so far, home to our favorite wines from the Paso region and this Côte à Côte is our favorite of a really strong lineup of their wines. It still fits the easy drinking crowd pleaser, but it is so much more than that.
Stephen Asseo, the owner and winemaker at L’Aventure, is just a great story. Trained in Burgundy and Bordeaux, he left France for California seeking a place to really be let loose to produce wines without the restrictions of the AOC structures in France. Today his wines are usually only available via allocation from the vineyard. We aim to wow you and thought any sample selection of great California red wines would be lacking so we pulled these from our private cellar to share with you. Enjoy!
Wine Advocate
Critic Score: 98
The 2020 Côte a Côte is a beautiful blend of 45% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 25% Mourvèdre and one of the most successful wines I tasted from the challenging 2020 vintage. Deep ruby-purple, it offers pure aromas of blackcurrant, boysenberry, tar and pipe tobacco, continually unfolding with each return to the glass. The full-bodied palate offers wave after wave of perfumed fruit and tremendous spicy accents. It's powerful yet harmoniously structured with powdery tannins and seamless acidity, and it offers a very long, detailed finish.
It shows more chalky minerality with time in the glass and is pure, seamless, and beautifully put together. Drink it over the coming 10-12 years.
James Suckling
Critic Score: 97
I love the depth and the mineral quality of this. Dark cherries, black licorice, iodine, graphite, oyster shells and hot stones. Quite vertical yet broad, with super fine but present tannins. Long, seductive yet quite focused, too. A stunner from L’Aventure.
