Born and raised in the Southeast of France, Guillaume comes from a family of grape growers and winemakers. After 24 years in Narbonne, he moved to Bordeaux. Both regions famous for their wines are also very different from each other. It requires some grape growing and winemaking experience to switch from one to the other, such as different climates, soil types, vine illnesses and more. But life is full of surprises. Not convinced he wanted to make wine in Bordeaux, he took a harvest internship at L’Aventure in Paso Robles. The same bolt of lighting that he felt for Solène, struck again. He fell in love with the soil and terroir of Paso Robles. What was supposed to be a 3-month harvest internship, turned into 6 months, and he was offered the position of Assistant Winemaker. While working for L’Aventure, he worked day and night on his own project - to launch his very own brand. In 2007, Clos Solène was born.
When Guillaume and Solène acquired the estate in January of 2017, the existing vineyard was planted in 1998 onto vigorous rootstock. The rows were planted a little wider than Guillaume would have planted, but he felt that it was a great place to start, especially having 20-year-old vines in place, which is considered “old vines” for this area. After testing to make sure the vines were clean of any and all viruses, Guillaume decided to re-graft the whole 8 acres and turn the plot into a nursery for future planting.
Robert Parker on Clos Solene:
"Clos Solène was founded in 2007 by Guillaume and Solène Fabre. At present, they make about 2,500 cases a year but have recently purchased their own estate and hope to grow the brand to around 4,000 cases. Guillaume, a native of the Languedoc-Roussillon in France, has begun planting rootstocks and grafting over vines and is experimenting with Côte-Rôtie-style training for his Syrah vines. Currently, most of the fruit is purchased, but the pair hopes to dial back to only 30% purchased fruit as their own vines come online. Guillaume says he wants his wines to have “a common denominator of elegance and perfume,” and indeed the wines are much more restrained than is usual for Paso. 2017 with its heat spikes was especially challenging here. “It was 105 degrees for two straight weeks,” Guillaume recalls. “We picked a bit earlier, used less new oak, less stems and less extraction. We did triage picks and then sorted very heavily. We lost about 30% to 40% of production on the sorting table because we let go of anything impacted by that heat. - Erin BROOKS"
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (February 2020)
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St. Supery Dollarhide Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot.
This Cabernet Sauvignon presents with deep, dark reds and purples. Aromas are opulent with ripe blackberry, black plum, cassis, chocolate, and toasted oak. A rich, dense profile follows with flavors of cassis and ripe black fruits, espresso, mocha, and molasses with subtle oak in influence. It is a deep, structured wine with excellent fine-grain tannin.
Review:
100% estate-grown single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon hails from the winery’s Dollarhide Ranch. The property is known for its steep rolling hills—reaching upwards of 1,100 feet—as well as some flatlands and seven lakes rife with wildlife. Aged for 20 months in 100% French oak (54% new), the wine offers a broad and generous mouthfeel with chewy tannins. The fruit is ripe and almost gobby, becoming more streamlined as it opens up. Dark berries are lush and sweet with hints of brown sugar. Acidity and chalky lift are well defined and have the mouth imploring for that next sip. Refined, elegant, polished, and poised
-Tasting Panels 96 Points
This 100% estate-grown single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon hails from the winery’s Dollarhide Ranch. The property is known for its steep rolling hills—reaching upwards of 1,100 feet—as well as some flatlands and seven lakes rife with wildlife. Aged for 20 months in 100% French oak (54% new), the wine offers a broad and generous mouthfeel with chewy tannins. The fruit is ripe and almost gobby, becoming more streamlined as it opens up. Dark berries are lush and sweet with hints of brown sugar. Acidity and chalky lift are well defined and have the mouth imploring for that next sip. Refined, elegant, polished, and poised.
-Somm Journal 96 Points
Corne Loup Tavel Rose is made from 60% Grenache, 15% Cinsault, 10% Syrah, 15% mix of Mourvèdre, Clairette & Carignan
Elegant, refreshing, food-friendly and versatile, this Tavel offers mouth-watering aromas of strawberry and berry pie.
Corne Loup Tavel represents the pinnacle of the rose pyramid quality wise that can be achieved in the Southern Rhone. The town of Tavel has been famous for its rose wine since the time of the Popes in Avignon (1300's). Tavel is about 2,300 acres in size and produces about 500,000 cases yearly of 9 liter cases, plus can age for 2-3 years, unlike many other roses. Produced from a blend of Grenache, Cinsualt, Syrah, Mourvedre, Cinsault and Carignan, the wine comes from a famous sub-parcel called the Plateau de Vallongue between Tavel and Lirac AOC's.
The 20 hectare-vineyards are located in the hamlets of Oliver, Campet, Vestides and Vallongue. The Tavel from this producer is a blend of all 3 soils types you can find in the AOC:
Dry and lively, it is an ideal wine for barbecues as it makes a wonderful sipper that's also capable of matching with a wide variety of summer foods, including grilled chicken, seafood and summer salads