The Paring Red 2014 | A study in Elegance | Absolutely Delicious
The Paring Red 2014 displays Dark purple-ruby, medium viscosity, with lightly stained tears. Add a savory intensity to the nose revealing aromas of ripe black cherry and blackberry. Also with intense cedar, clove, and allspice notes and a touch of violets. While the palate is fruitier, rounded and supple in texture. And silken tannins and a pure core of ripe cherry and blackberry fruit tinged with baking spices. Most of all full, but not too weighty, the finish is almost dangerously smooth.
89AG | The Paring Red 2014 is absolutely delicious. Red berry, herb, licorice, smoke, menthol and dark spice notes all flesh out in the glass. Pliant and super-inviting, the 2014 is going to be irresistible upon release. I can’t think of too many California Cabernets that deliver this much quality and pure pleasure for the money.
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91JD | Another good value, The Paring Red 2014 (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% each of Merlot and Cabernet Franc and the palate Petit Verdot) offers plenty of blackcurrants, toasted spice, graphite and licorice notes in a medium-bodied, chewy style. Drink it over the coming 7-8 years.”
Winery | This Cabernet-inspired blend shows the sanguine, focused fruit and shapely tannins that we’ve come to expect from the sandy soils and slightly cooler climate of these outstanding vineyard sites. Balanced and refined The Paring Red 2014. A study in elegance.
The Paring – Heritage & Vineyards
Matt Dees’ heavy-hitting “The Paring” reds are some of our best discoveries. And his The Paring Red 2014 from Santa Barbara is conceivably the finest under-$25 Bordeaux blend on the coast. Why? The Paring is the second wine from two star-studded estates: First, there’s JONATA in Ballard Canyon — the sister winery of Screaming Eagle.
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Then, there’s HILT Estate in the prized Santa Rita Hills AVA. The AVA leverages iconic Bentrock and Radian Vineyards to produce some of the area’s most exciting and highest scoring wines. The winemaker behind both estates is Dees, who learned to make wine from 100-point winemaker Andy Erickson (formerly of Screaming Eagle).
HILT and JONATA | The Winemaking Team
The Paring wines, produced by Matt Dees and the winemaking team at JONATA, have elicited a bevy of praise, including this comment from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate: “What they are accomplishing with Bordeaux varietals is mind-boggling.”
A decade later, Dees and the team at JONATA have achieved greatness in more ways than one. The Paring Red 2014 offers all this star-studded team is capable of — and then some.
