Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Brilliant stuff, the 2016 Audacious boasts a vivid ruby/purple color as well as awesome notes of black raspberries, ground pepper, incense, and crushed flowers. Deep and beautifully concentrated, with polished tannins, this remarkable wine shows how sexy and pure this vintage can be. A blend of 32% Grenache, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Carignan, and 18% Syrah that was fermented in concrete tanks and aged 22 months in French oak, drink it any time over the coming 7-8 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Audacious is a blend of 32% Grenache, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Carignan and 18% Syrah aged 19 months in 60% new oak. Deep ruby-purple, it's scented of roasted plums, mint chocolate, prosciutto, coffee beans, blackcurrants and blackberries with nuances of cast-iron pan, garrigue, red berries and violet. The palate is medium to full-bodied, silky and slowly unfurls to nuanced black fruits with blue fruit hints. It has a frame of firm, very finely grained tannins and juicy freshness, finishing long and lifted.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dark and tangy aromas of black plum and boysenberry meet with hints of licorice, fennel pollen and wet loam on the nose of this blend of 32% Grenache, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Carignan and 18% Syrah. The palate is dense with flavors of cassis, cocoa bean and coffee and made more complex by sagebrush and pencil shavings. Young tannins coat the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Plump and polished, with a structured core that offers expressive raspberry, garrigue and smoked pepper flavors, taking on richness toward fine-grained tannins. Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignane and Syrah. Drink now through 2026.
With hundreds of red grape varieties to choose from, winemakers have the freedom to create a virtually endless assortment of blended red wines. In many European regions, strict laws are in place determining the set of varieties that may be used, but in the New World, experimentation is permitted and encouraged resulting in a wide variety of red wine styles. Blending can be utilized to enhance balance or create complexity, lending different layers of flavors and aromas. For example, a red wine blend variety that creates a fruity and full-bodied wine would do well combined with one that is naturally high in acidity and tannins. Sometimes small amounts of a particular variety are added to boost color or aromatics. Blending can take place before or after fermentation, with the latter, more popular option giving more control to the winemaker over the final qualities of the wine.
How to Serve Red Wine
A common piece of advice is to serve red wine at “room temperature,” but this suggestion is imprecise. After all, room temperature in January is likely to be quite different than in August, even considering the possible effect of central heating and air conditioning systems. The proper temperature to aim for is 55° F to 60° F for lighter-bodied reds and 60° F to 65° F for fuller-bodied wines.
How Long Does Red Wine Last?
Once opened and re-corked, a bottle stored in a cool, dark environment (like your fridge) will stay fresh and nicely drinkable for a day or two. There are products available that can extend that period by a couple of days. As for unopened bottles, optimal storage means keeping them on their sides in a moderately humid environment at about 57° F. Red wines stored in this manner will stay good – and possibly improve – for anywhere from one year to multiple decades. Assessing how long to hold on to a bottle is a complicated science. If you are planning long-term storage of your reds, seek the advice of a wine professional.
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.