Last Tuesday night, after a long day at D&W talking wine, holidays, and why Uncle Rick always brings a box wine to Thanksgiving, I finally opened the Patrimony. I wish I could say I saved it for a grand dinner party with a multi-course meal—nope. It was a skirt steak, a quiet night at home, and a bottle I’d been thinking about all day.
First Impressions
Before the cork even left the bottle, the room picked up that deep, dark Cabernet perfume. You know that moment when you open the door to Lake Michigan’s shoreline after a storm—dense, powerful, charged? That’s this wine’s energy.
The first sip stopped me mid-sentence. Massive concentration. Ridiculous richness. And somehow still balanced—like a 6’5’’ rugby player who’s shockingly light on his feet.
Let’s keep this human:
- Think blackberry jam that grew up and got a private education.
- Dark cocoa, the good stuff, not the kind your neighbor puts in holiday cookies.
- Graphite and pencil shavings, but not in a pretentious way—more like walking into a freshly sharpened classroom.
- A smoothness that reminds you this is the winery’s pride and joy.
The texture? Silky but muscular. Like a tennis swing where you know the ball’s not coming back.
The Score & Value Side
The bottle proudly displays past vintages hitting 98+ points from Wine Advocate, and honestly, I get it. Patrimony is DAOU’s moonshot—Paso Robles fruit farmed and vinified with a kind of “we’re here to make history” attitude.
At $229.99, it’s not your Tuesday night wine unless your Tuesday nights are very different than mine. But for anniversaries, promotions, celebrations, or the bottle you bring when you want to show you mean business, it absolutely delivers.
Would I buy it again?
If I see it at Costco—100%. Once it disappears, good luck finding it under $300.
The Occasion
We drank it next to a simple grilled skirt steak from Butcher Block and a side salad because I didn’t want anything competing with this bottle. It dominated the table in the best possible way.
This is the kind of wine you open on a cold night when Lake Michigan wind sounds like it’s reminding you who’s boss. The kind of wine you sip slowly, thinking about travel, vineyards, old stories from France, and how the west side of Michigan might be one of the best places in the world to enjoy a glass of something great.
