2021 Aatto

The 2021 Aat­to is wicked­ly fresh, burst­ing from the glass with a lift­ing mix of sweet herbs, cola and hints of orange-tinge dark choco­late com­ple­ment­ing crushed straw­ber­ries. It’s juicy in char­ac­ter with a wave of liq­uid vio­let flo­rals and crisp black­ber­ry fruits that cas­cade across the palate. It fin­ish­es on a spicy note with a lay­er of crunchy tan­nins and tart black­ber­ry.  93 pts

Eric Guido/Vinous

 

The 2021 Aat­to is a blend of 44% Counoise, 36% Mourvè­dre and 20% Grenache that’s easy to drink with­out sac­ri­fic­ing com­plex­i­ty. It has invit­ing scents of wild black­ber­ries, pep­per­corn, char­cu­terie, blood orange, tea leaves and bit­ters. The medi­um-bod­ied palate is ele­gant­ly styled and refresh­ing with dusty tan­nins and a long, spicy fin­ish. 93 pts

Erin Brooks/ Wine Advocate

Finnish for, ​“eve”, as in Christ­mas Eve. My dad’s name; he was born on Christ­mas Eve (Joulu Aatto).

My dad was a dream­er, like me. I guess I got his rest­less DNA. He was born in Fin­land in 1932, was essen­tial­ly orphaned by the time he was 10, jumped on a ship with one of his broth­ers to Cana­da in his ear­ly-20s, met my mom, had kids, and ulti­mate­ly moved us to South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. The land of opportunity!

Although he real­ized some of that oppor­tu­ni­ty, he nev­er quite got a hold of the reins the way he envi­sioned. He inspired me to real­ize that dream. I feel total­ly priv­i­leged to be here today, and because of that I give my dad a nod, an acknowl­edge­ment that I’m here because of his dreams.