Seven Oxen Estate Paso Robles Mourvèdre 2018

Seven Oxen Estate Paso Robles Mourvèdre 2018

Founding Vigneron, Bastien Leduc, hails from Castelnau-de-Montmiral in the southwest of France, where he grew up helping his father on his family’s pioneering organic vineyard. Bastien believes grape-growing is the most important part of the winemaking process, and meticulously oversees the farming of the Seven Oxen estate and the production of Seven Oxen wines from their very inception on the vine to their bottling.

The 130-acre Seven Oxen estate is located on Kiler Canyon Road in Paso Robles’ coveted westside, straddling the Templeton Gap and Willow Creek sub AVAs. The limestone-rich property includes 26 acres of head-trained vines. The vineyard is located 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean, where southwest-facing slopes are cooled in the evenings by coastal breezes, which allow the vines to maintain balanced levels of acidity despite extreme summer heat.

Mourvèdre, or Monastrell as it is known in its native Spain, Mataro in Australia and California, is a black-skinned variety that has been grown in vineyards all around the western Mediterranean for centuries. Thought to have originated in Spain, it is now grown extensively throughout the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, California and South Australia.

Critical Acclaim

92 Wine Enthusiast

This is one of the more expressive Mourvèdres out there, perhaps aided by the 10% Grenache. Snappy black-raspberry aromas are juicy and joyous yet brisk and fresh, leading into a clean, tart yet ripe palate of plump berries and slightly funky herbs, framed with decently tense tannins.