Winemaker Notes
This vintage carries a bouquet of red and blue fruits, and an essence of the California hills – sagebrush, lavender, and red cedar. On the palate, this wine brings earthy gravel and black tea, tempered with fresh bing cherry, dried raspberry, and licorice spice.
Blend: Mourvèdre 39% , Grenache 23%, Carignan 20%, Syrah 18%
Ideal pairings for this wine include chicken Tagine with olives and preserved lemons or herb focaccia stuffed quail with cannellini beans.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Charred meats, licorice, spiced plums, and blackberry notes all emerge from the 2017 Anna's Red Signature, which is an even split of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre blended with 10% Petite Sirah. It's a ripe, opulent, blockbuster Côtes du Rhône look-alike to enjoy over the coming 4-6 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The medium to deep ruby colored 2017 Anna's Red Estate Vineyard is made up of 30% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 30% Mourvèdre and 10% Petite Sirah. It has a broody, spicy nose of blackberries, grilled game meats, pepper, spiced cranberry sauce, woodsmoke, dried leaves and a light framing of new oak spices. Medium to full-bodied, it balances earth, fruit and savory character and has a grainy texture and seamless freshness, finishing long.
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Wine Enthusiast
Hints of cocoa, coffee, dense but not overripe black currant and toasted wood show on the nose of this blend. A lush palate of roasted black plum and blackberry syrup is generous but not sweet, offering savory elements of roasted pork. Tannins linger into the finish.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
39% Mourvèdre; 23% Grenache; 20% Carignane; 18% Syrah. Fruit takes a moment to catch up with the savory, slightly earthy elements that greet the nose first, but catch up it does and brings a sweet, berry-like component to this one’s very ripe and increasingly expansive aromas. On the palate, the wine is weighty and rich and is every bit as fully ripe as billed, yet its fruitier parts win out over sheer ripeness, and it shows intriguing touches of earthy/spicy complexity. Not so tannic as to be unapproachable now, but enough so as to reward a few years of waiting, it is quite well-balanced for a wine that is as ripe as it is.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
Paso Robles has made a name for itself as a source of supple, powerful, fruit-driven Central Coast wines. But with eleven smaller sub-AVAs, there is actually quite a bit of diversity to be found in this inland portion of California’s Central Coast.
Just east over the Santa Lucia Mountains from the chilly Pacific Ocean, lie the coolest in the region: Adelaida, Templeton Gap and (Paso Robles) Willow Creek Districts, as well as York Mountain AVA and Santa Margarita Ranch. These all experience more ocean fog, wind and precipitation compared to the rest of the Paso sub-appellations. The San Miguel, (Paso Robles) Estrella, (Paso Robles) Geneso, (Paso Robles) Highlands, El Pomar and Creston Districts, along with San Juan Creek, are the hotter, more western appellations of the greater Paso Robles AVA.
This is mostly red wine country, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel standing out as the star performers. Other popular varieties include Merlot, Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Grenache and Rhône blends, both red and white. There is a fairly uniform tendency here towards wines that are unapologetically bold and opulently fruit-driven, albeit with a surprising amount of acidity thanks to the region’s chilly nighttime temperatures.