2017 L'Aventure Cote A Cote

The 2017 Côte a Côte is a blend of 48% Grenache, 32% Mourvèdre and 20% Syrah. Medium to deep ruby, it explodes with tricolored fruits: peach cobbler, apricot, marionberries, boysenberries and crushed blackberries with accents of dried leaves, saline, blood orange peel, pink peppercorn, cured meats, thyme and dried lavender. Medium to full-bodied and silky, it slowly spreads its wings in the mouth, blossoming into lovely technicolor fruits with a floral vein. It has a pixelated frame and freshness that begs for another sip, finishing long, layered and lifted. This is stunning!

The only Grenache-dominated release is the 2017 Côte A Côte, a blend of 48% Grenache, 32% Mourvèdre, and the rest Syrah that spent 14 months in 30% new French oak. It's one sexy red that offers full-bodied richness and depth as well as brilliant notes of blackberries, black raspberries, ground pepper, potpourri, and flowery incense aromas and flavors. This smoking Grenache is elegant, with no hard edges, beautiful purity, and a great finish. It shows how successful Grenache was in 2017 and is a magical wine. I certainly blew the call on some of the Bordeaux blends from l’Aventure last year, and their Estate Cuvée and Côte a Côte are much better wines than my barrel reviews suggested.

Tasted from barrel, the 2017 Cote a Cote is a blend of 48% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 32% Mourvèdre. It's fruity and expressive, revealing aromas of juicy cherries and raspberries, followed by a full-bodied, supple and fruit-driven palate that's quite open-knit and generous already; there's just a touch of back-end stem tannin to resolve on the finish.