2016 L'Aventure Cuvée Chloe
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Tasting notes
The 2016 Chloe (69% Syrah and 31% Grenache) is one of the closer, tighter, and more backward wines in the lineup. Sporting a deep purple color, it offers terrific notes of blackcurrants, spiced meats, and ample minerality and crushed rock characteristics. Structured, full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and pure, it’s loaded with potential yet needs 2-3 years of bottle age. Trust me, it’s a brilliant wine. Consistently thrilling wines come from l’Aventure, which is run with incredible talent and passion by St. Emilion native Stephan Asseo. His 2016s are incredible efforts, and the 2017 more Rhône blends are certainly in the same ballpark. Due to the heat spikes at harvest, Bordeaux varieties were much more difficult and hit or miss.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
Opaque, bright-rimmed ruby. A deeply perfumed, complex bouquet features boysenberry, cherry preserve, licorice, vanilla and smoky mineral qualities. Stains the palate with sweet black and blue fruit, spicecake and candied rose flavors that show a surprisingly delicate touch given their heft. Smooth, slow-building tannins frame a broad, smoky finish that hangs on with superb, floral-dominated persistence.
The 2016 Cuvee Chloe is a blend of 69% Syrah and 31% Grenache that is co-fermented and saw around 20% whole cluster fermentation. The wine reveals aromas of ripe black fruits, roasted meat, espresso roast, dark chocolate and cracked pepper, followed by a rich, full-bodied palate that's amply endowed with extract, fruit and firm, chewy tannins—which may be stem-derived. It was only bottled a month ago when I tasted it, but even so, it's quite structurally assertive, so this is a wine for consumers that aren't afraid of tannin.
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.