I thoroughly enjoyed this wine, and my wife thought it was one of the better wines we have had in some time, and that's saying something!  It is a Rhone style blend of Syrah, Petite Sirah, Mourvedre, and Grenache.  It drinks like a properly cellared Chateauneuf du Pape from the southern Rhone Valley in France.  The grapes are grown in the central California regions of Paso Robles and Monterrey, which are both receiving accolades as up and coming areas to grow Rhone varietals.

The wine is smokey, meaty, and complex on the nose with hints of tar, smoke, cherry and toasted oak.  Plenty of fruit grips the palate, and in fact, this makes the wine more approachable than a typical Rhone, especially in it's youth.  The wine finishes smooth, albeit a bit shorter than a full blown Chateauneuf.

The San Antonio winery is a historic winery in Los Angeles, but don't let the winery location fool you.  These grapes are from some of the premier growing areas of the central coast (not Southern Cal-L.A.), and the location where the picked grapes are then vinified and bottled has little, if anything, to do with the final product.  I have never been to the old San Antonio Winery in LA, but I hear they have nice tours, a nice restaurant on site, a tasting room, and so forth.  They are located in downtown LA.

I give the wine 3.75 stars.  My wife gave it 4 stars.

 

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