Tuesday, September 21, 2010

2007 L'Aventure Cabernet with 5% Petit Verdot

This is a kaleidoscope of aromas and Calif cab flavors. It's an awesome cab just a step short of Harlan and its ilk I'd say. Cocoa, coffee/mocha, tobacco, blackberry (and maybe another dark berry I can't identify but i see in professional notes below is none other than blueberry), violet/lavender, mint, licorice and an extraordinary gardenia nose that I've never experienced before (a vanilla plus flowery component that's more expectged from a white grape). Very dark purple like grape juice. On the palate, silky tannins that melt into the finish almost imperceptibly. High acid balanced by deep fruit. It really doesn't get much better than this in California cab. There is a lot of sediment; awfully early for sediment to be this prominent; I mean it really needed decanting. 95+. Good for 10 years. I can't really tell what's cassis, what's blackberry, what's currant. Anyhow it's all good here.

Had some more 24 hrs later. Unsurprisingly the wine is very fine still. Less acid and brightness but new flavors. I'm getting the cherry cola and acid very low except on finish. On palate it's almost like complex Cabernet grape juice. Mint spice prominent with a sweet potpourri edge. Highly pleasurable


What the winery says:

2007 L'Aventure Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot. Stephan has made a conscious choice to develop a Cabernet Sauvignon wine as a permanent fixture of the range, that is, if mother nature permits. The 2007 Cabernet is inky–purple, with an opaque center. Spicy currant and cola on the nose, the attack on the palate is immense with spicy cedar and smoke underpinning dark, wild blackberry and blueberry flavors. The luxuriant mouth goes on and on, with tea leaf and more spice in the finish. $80.00

Parker thinks this will last much longer:

Another long distance runner is the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, a wine worth following over the next 15-20 years. With classic aromas of graphite, creme de cassis, spring flowers, and earth, this is a big, broodingly backward, full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon that is probably too formidably endowed and intense to attack presently, but given 3-4 years of bottle age, this wine should evolve as well as some of the North Coast Cabernet Sauvignons from Napa. Everything is there – crushed rock, creme de cassis, graphite, full-bodied power, fabulous concentration, purity, and a saturated purple color, all suggesting a brilliant wine. By the way, it is a blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5 % Petit Verdot. Anticipated maturity: 2013-2025+. 94+ points.

Tanzer as usual a point or two lower than Parker:
93 points; Dark purple. Strongly perfumed bouquet of blackcurrant and cherry pit, with a mounting note of blueberry. Deeply concentrated dark fruit flavors are supported by a suave mineral spine and framed by silky tannins. Impressively pure and vibrant, with strong finishing cut and echoes of smoky minerals and spicecake. As attractive as it is now, this suave wine is built to reward patience.

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