L'Aventure, or Stephan Vineyards, is a California wine estate producing red wine blends of the Bordeaux and Rhône grape varieties. The winery is located southwest of Paso Robles, California, along the

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

in the Santa Lucia Mountain range.

History

Stephan Asseo settled in Paso Robles due to its similarities in '' terroir'' to the Rhône Valley, founding L'Aventure in 1998. Following a vision of "Bordeaux meets Rhône in Paso Robles", consistent acclaim and high scores by

Robert M. Parker, Jr. Robert McDowell Parker Jr. (born July 23, 1947) is a retired U.S. wine critic. His wine ratings on a 100-point scale and his newsletter ''The Wine Advocate'' are influential in American wine buying and are therefore a major factor in setting th ...

have caused sales of L'Aventure wines to rise considerably, and the estate has been informally termed a "Grand Cru of Paso Robles". Asseo was selected as 2007 Winemaker of the Year of San Luis Obispo County. In 2007 he also appeared in the second series of ''

Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure ''Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure'' is a BBC television programme of which two series have been broadcast. It was presented by wine expert Oz Clarke and motoring journalist James May (at the time, a presenter of ''Top Gear''), with Clarke aimi ...

''.

Production

The vineyard area extends , cultivated with grape varieties of 40%

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon' ...

, 30%

Syrah Syrah (), also known as Shiraz, is a dark-skinned grape variety grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine. In 1999, Syrah was found to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse B ...

, 15% Petit Verdot and 15% Mourvèdre as well as portions of

Grenache Grenache () or Garnacha () is one of the most widely planted red wine grape varieties in the world. Niels Lillelund: ''Rhône-Vinene'' p. 25, JP Bøger – JP/Politikens Forlagshus A/S, 2004. . It ripens late, so it needs hot, dry conditi ...

, Roussanne,

Viognier Viognier () is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu in the Rhône Valley.J. Robinson ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 754 Oxford University Press 2006 Outside of the Rhôn ...

and Grenache blanc. Among the wines produced are the "Paso blends" L'Aventure Optimus and Estate Cuvée, the "Rhône blend" L'Aventure Côte à Côte, and a

rosé A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the skin contact method. ...

. The varietal wines produced are Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Roussanne, and previously Chardonnay and

Zinfandel Zinfandel (also known as Primitivo) is a variety of black-skinned wine grape. The variety is grown in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA analysis has revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grapes Crljenak Kaštel ...

. On average 7,500 cases are produced annually.

References

External links

L'Aventure official site
{{Coord, 35, 35, 24, N, 120, 44, 36, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title Wineries in San Luis Obispo County, California Companies based in San Luis Obispo County, California Paso Robles, California Santa Lucia Range 1998 establishments in California