2020 Clos Solene Sweet Clementine

A bigger, richer wine that shows the warmer style of the vintage, the 2020 Mon Millésime offers ripe black fruits, roasted meats, spicy wood, and graphite. It's medium to full-bodied, rich, and structured, with firmer tannins and still-present oak. This powerful effort will benefit from short-term cellaring and drink well for 12-15 years. Drink 2025-2037. One of the top talents in Paso Robles, Guillaume Fabre worked at L’Aventure before launching Clos Solène in 2007. About seven years ago, he and his wife Solène bought a thirty-acre limestone site on Willow Creek Road at roughly 1,300 feet; it is farmed organically, and a new cave system under the property is nearly finished. Estate fruit now anchors the lineup, but it is supplemented by parcels from James Berry, G2, Hoyt, and Bien Nacido in Santa Maria Valley. The wines span the Roussanne-based Hommage Blanc, Grenache-led El Toro and Harmonie, Syrah-focused Hommage à Nos Pairs and Bien Nacido Cuvée Jean, the Cabernet-driven L’Insolent, the mixed variety Fleur de Solène, and the barrel selection Mon Millésime. Reds generally age 16-22 months in varying levels of new French oak. These are classic, impeccably made wines, rich yet structured, with seamless textures and beautiful overall balance, and Clos Solène is becoming a reference point for age-worthy wines from the region.