2010 Broken Earth Winery CV Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles 750 ml

On December 17th of last year, we sent Wine Access members one of the most successful offers in recent memory—a perfectly cellared, 10-year-old reserve Cabernet at a 60% discount. The 2010 Broken Earth Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon sold out almost immediately, and after members tasted its supple texture and gorgeous bottle age, they naturally wanted more. 

Well, there wasn’t any left—it was all spoken for. But we got our hands on another stunning Cabernet: The CV Reserve, the big brother of the Reserve, sourced from Broken Earth’s original Continental Vineyard and representing the absolute best of the best from this storied Paso Robles producer, established in 1973. Once again we’ve managed a 63% first bottle discount—the best price in the nation. 

For $30 this is a prodigious level of quality, a library release, fully in its prime, drinking exactly how a ten-year-old Cabernet should. 

The CV Reserve is luscious, refined, and immensely complex. Its soft dark fruits—cassis, black cherry, and blueberry—are warm and rich, offering up a tantalizing mix of fresh and dried fruit notes that speak to a decade of cellar slumber. Sandalwood, clove, dried herb, and tobacco are seamlessly threaded through the fruit core, with silky tannins offering a firm but elegant structure, reminiscent of Napa. This could continue to develop for another decade (one reason to stock up on multiple bottles) but it is magnificent right now. No need to decant—just pop, pour, and enjoy. 

The brilliance of the 2010 CV began with a vintage of equal acclaim in Paso Robles. Arguably more than anywhere else in California, the 2010 vintage belonged to Paso. A temperate season allowed Cabernet to stay on the vines longer while maintaining exactly the kind of vibrant acidity a wine needs to age for a decade or more. 

For the CV Reserve Cabernet, winemaker Chris Cameron culled the cream of the crop from the estate’s 700-acre vineyard, then stashed it away for almost two years of aging in all-new French oak barrels. The result is one of the best wines ever produced by this pioneering Paso Robles estate.