93 Points! (raised for 22 months in large French oak barrels, 55% of them new) Bright purple. Smoke-tinged cherry and blueberry compote aromas show excellent clarity, and a mocha element sneaks in as the wine stretches out. Sweet and pliant in the mouth, offering densely packed yet lively red and blue fruit and floral pastille flavors and a hi ...read more
93 Points! The last vintage of this cuvée as these grapes will be moved into the Oublie cuvée, the 2016 Fulldraw Vineyard offers serious Syrah notes (I don’t know the blend) in its chocolate, jammy blackberry, licorice, and crushed rock aromas and flavors. This is a big, rich, brooding red that packs serious amounts o ...read more
97 Points! The 2016 My Favorite Neighbor is made with the intent of competing with cult Napa Cabernet Sauvignon yet at a more maintainable $80 price point. Coming all from westside Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon, mostly on clay soils, and brought up all in French oak, I'm thrilled to say that it succeeds beautifully. This deep purple ...read more
97 Points! The same blend of Grenache and Syrah fermented with around one-third stems, the 2016 Oublie 22 spent 22 months in barrel. As with the straight release of this cuvée, it has an exotic bouquet of blueberries, blackberries, crushed violets, ground herbs, and graphite. Deep, full-bodied, concentrated, and powerful, it&rsquo ...read more
96 Points! The 2016 Oublie offers exotic notes of ripe blueberries, crushed violets, peppery spice, and blood orange in its full-bodied, beautifully pure, elegant profile. It has ripe tannins, good acidity, and is an undeniably beautiful wine. A blend of Grenache and Mourvèdre that saw plenty of stems, drink this sexy red any time ...read more
97+ Points! The same wine as the straight Ripper only aged longer in barrel, the 2016 Ripper 22 is cut from the same cloth yet is slightly deeper and more rounded, with sensational notes of kirsch, blackberry liqueur, ground pepper, and leafy herbs. This full-bodied, rich, textured beauty shows slightly more evolution aromatically, yet I ...read more
98 Points! The same blend as the straight Vertigo (52% Syrah, 30% Grenache, and 18% Mourvèdre), the 2016 Vertigo 22 offers a similar profile of deep, decadent notes of blueberries, graphite, smoked earth, and asphalt. More closed, backward, and dense than the classic cuvée, this full-bodied, incredibly layered, multi-dimens ...read more
99 Points! I suspect the finest vintage to date, the 2016 Vertigo is a rock star effort and one of the top wines to ever come out of Paso Robles. Just loaded with notions of blueberries, incense, ground pepper, and crushed flowers, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a multi-dimensional, layered texture, no hard edges, and ...read more
95 Points! A blend of 50% Syrah, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Grenache, the 2015 Fleur De Solene from Guillaume is a ripe, sexy wine that shows the more elegant, focused style of the vintage. Possessing full-bodied richness, notable tannin, impeccable balanced and lots of cassis, black raspberry, crushed violet and charcoal aromatics, this b ...read more
