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The placements that matter most — international wine media, national food media, and the reviews behind our highest scores. Everything else is grouped by topic below.
Forbes expert voice
Liz Thach builds an entire Forbes pairing guide around Neeta Mittal as the expert voice — her argument that Indian food is architecture rather than a single flavor, and that the answer is ripe fruit running alongside the spice rather than sweetness dialing it down. Butter chicken goes to our Reserve Cabernet Franc; paneer makhani to the Blanc de Franc.
95 pts · Top red pick
Decanter’s report on the vintage that broke a three-year drought singles out the MESO by LXV G2N Cabernet Franc at 95 points as its red selection — the highest-scoring red shown. Brianne Cohen reads the wine as unmistakably Cabernet Franc, with pyrazine cutting through dark berry, cedar and cigar box.
98 · 98 · 97 · 96 pts
The Feb/March 2026 issue reviews the inaugural 2022 Maison Mittal releases and returns four exceptional scores: 98 points each for the G2 North Cabernet Franc–Cabernet Sauvignon and the Cabernet Franc–Merlot blend, 97 for the Château Tour Perey Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, and 96 for the Armaa.N Estate Cabernet Franc–Cabernet Sauvignon.
94 pts · Top 100
Wine Enthusiast’s hundred most age-worthy bottles of the year include our Armaa.N Estate Sangiovese from the Willow Creek District, reviewed by Matt Kettmann at 94 points. His note opens on dark cherry, strawberry and ripe red plum wrapped in dark mint — a wine built to keep evolving in the cellar.
Read the full article on Wine Enthusiast About Armaa.N Estate
Future 40 honorees
Neeta and Kunal Mittal are named to Wine Enthusiast’s Future 40 — the annual list of forty people reshaping how America drinks — under the label “Owners, LXV Wine.” The citation covers the 2011 founding, the spice-pairing method as wine education, and Maison Mittal, our Paso Robles and Saint-Émilion “Global Grand Cru” project.
Read the full article on Wine Enthusiast Discover Maison Mittal
97 pts
Master of Wine Liz Thach interviews Neeta Mittal as one of seven CAB Collective principals, drawing her out on how Paso’s calcareous soils hold acidity and keep fruit, oak and alcohol in balance. Her review of the MESO 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon from Gateway Vineyard lands at 97 points — our highest Forbes score.
Global travel list
Eater’s annual list of where to eat and travel in the year ahead puts Paso Robles on its global map, with LXV among the reasons to make the trip. It is the placement that pairs with our Wine Enthusiast recognition on the tasting-room badge — a food-media endorsement rather than a wine-media one.
Featured grower
Decanter’s deep profile of the Willow Creek District treats the Mittals as featured voices. Kunal explains how the Templeton Gap’s cooling proves its worth in hot years like 2022; Neeta speaks to the district’s collaborative ethos. Decanter reports the couple farming just over three hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Sangiovese at Armaa.N.
Editor’s pick
Matt Kettmann’s guide to where to drink in Paso Robles names LXV among a dozen recommended stops — and the only downtown room singled out for its pairing program. Sommelier Ian Addamo tells him the Flavor Flight is what makes a downtown tasting room work, because guests leave having actually learned something.
International press
India’s largest English-language daily covers the rise of Indian-American winemakers in the United States, with LXV among the producers cited. For a winery whose whole idea began in a spice market south of Mumbai, coverage in the Indian national press closes a circle.
Independent critics and reviewers on individual LXV, MESO and Maison Mittal bottlings — the scores, tasting notes and vintage assessments behind our accolades. Most of these wines come from our estate fruit at Armaa.N Estate in the Willow Creek District.
Best of 2025 list
A single-bottle review of our Blanc de Franc — a white made from 100% Cabernet Franc, gently pressed, tank-fermented, then ten months in French oak, with just 115 cases produced. White peach, honeydew, vanilla and minerality; Kelly named it to his Best Wines Tasted list for 2025 in the above-$51 tier.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries Shop current wines
Gold & Double Gold
A dedicated review of the 2022 MESO Cabernet Franc — 100% Cabernet Franc from the Willow Creek District, half in new French oak from Quintessence Montpensier and Darnajou. Kelly records both Gold and Double Gold at the 6th International Cabernet Franc Competition, and finds blackberry, ripe plum, soft vanilla and pipe tobacco.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries MESO by LXV
Recommended wine
Brianne Cohen’s assessment of a difficult 2022 in Paso Robles recommends the LXV MESO Cabernet Sauvignon from Willow Creek. Unusually for a Decanter tasting note, it carries founder color — identifying LXV as Indian-American owned and placing Neeta Mittal’s mother in a small town south of Mumbai.
Grand Sweepstakes
Five barrels of Portico Hills fruit, seventeen days on skins and twenty months in French barriques — and a competition sweep to match: Double Gold from the professional panel, Best of Category, Best Cabernet Franc in California, Grand Sweepstakes, plus Double Gold from the People’s Choice judges. Raspberry, lavender, blueberry, white pepper and sage.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries Reserve wines
Gold Medal · blends
The Tempo is Kunal’s Right Bank homage — 59% Cabernet Franc to 41% Merlot, 300 cases, fruit from Plummer and Portico Hills with Happy Canyon Merlot. Kelly finds black and red cherry over cedar and florals, and notes its Gold Medal in the blend division of the 5th International Cabernet Franc Competition.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries Shop current wines
Best Wines of 2023
Part profile, part barrel-preview. Kelly recaps the 2020 Reserve Cabernet Franc’s sweep at the 4th International Cabernet Franc Competition — Grand Sweepstakes, Gold, Best of Class and Best of Show in its division — then tastes the unreleased 2021 and predicts a repeat, naming it to his Best Wines Tasted for 2023.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries Reserve wines
Wine of the Week
Allison Levine makes our inaugural Blanc de Sangiovese her Wine of the Week, and explains the technique behind it: whole-cluster pressed, pulled off skins immediately, then activated carbon to strip every trace of color. White cherries, gorgeous texture, fresh acidity — 105 cases, made by Jeff Strekas.
Medal results, best-of lists and industry honors — from the International Cabernet Franc Competition to Wine Enthusiast’s Future 40. The wines behind them are in our current release and reserve collections.
Future 40 context
Sonderling puts the Future 40 honors in regional perspective: of nine California honorees, three of the four winemakers come from Paso Robles — two of them the Mittals. He covers CabFrancMasters in its fourth year and Maison Mittal, the Bordeaux project blending Paso Robles and Saint-Émilion fruit.
Future 40
The wine trade’s paper of record carries the Future 40 announcement, noting the Willow Creek AVA sourcing and the wine-and-global-spice pairings as LXV’s signature. Neeta is quoted on the difference between crafting a wine and shaping a vision with a partner who shares the commitment.
Read the full article on Wine Business Monthly All accolades
Future 40
The trade announcement of the Future 40 honor, setting out what it recognizes: LXV’s 2011 founding, Bordeaux-inspired blends, minimal-intervention farming of Willow Creek fruit, and global spice pairings rooted in the couple’s Indian heritage. Kunal frames the ambition as making LXV a reference point for wines of precision and soul.
Read the full article on Wine Industry Advisor Meet the founders
Two wines listed
Kelly’s year-end roundup runs to roughly 140 wines across two price bands. LXV takes two places in the $51-and-up tier — the 2021 Cabernet Franc Reserve and the 2021 ‘The Tempo’ — one of only a handful of producers to place two wines in the upper list.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries All accolades
Back-to-back Sweepstakes
LXV repeats as Grand Sweepstakes winner of the professional judging and adds Best of Category in the $76–$100 tier, with the wine described as made in a low-oak Chinon style. A Gold Medal follows in the blends class, plus Double Gold and another Gold from the People’s Choice panel.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries Reserve wines
Master Marketer Award
The region’s own trade body names Neeta Mittal winner of its Master Marketer Award, crediting Neeta and Kunal with building an extraordinary brand around an extraordinary guest experience — recognition from the people who know the Paso Robles market best.
Read the full article on Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance Our story
The closing dinner of the competition, course by course, with the Grand Sweepstakes winner poured as one of the pairings. Kelly’s impressions run to garrigue and sliced raspberry, fresh lilac aromatics, vanilla held in check by white pepper and sage, and a long silky finish.
Grand Sweepstakes
Results coverage of the 4th International Cabernet Franc Competition. The 2020 LXV Reserve Cabernet Franc from Portico Hills Vineyard takes the single highest honor available — Gold, Best of Class, Best of Show and Grand Sweepstakes from the professional judging panel.
Grand Sweepstakes
A judge’s-eye account of the same competition from inside the room — five hours of deliberation and several rounds of voting before the professional panel gave its grand sweepstakes to our 2020 Portico Hills Reserve Cabernet Franc, described as svelte, tense and pungent.
Best of Show · California
The Best of Show roll call. LXV takes the overall Grand Sweepstakes from the professional judging panel and Best of Show for the California division with a Gold Medal — in the winery’s first year of entering the competition.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries All accolades
Four honors, first entry
The full medal results from the world’s largest competition devoted solely to Cabernet Franc. The 2020 LXV Cabernet Franc takes Grand Sweepstakes, Gold, Best of Class and Best of Show — and Kelly notes it was the winery’s first year entering.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries All accolades
Coverage of the varietal advocacy work Neeta and Kunal Mittal lead through CabFrancMasters, International Cabernet Franc Day and the Paso Robles CAB Collective — plus regional reporting on the Willow Creek District we farm.
Regenerative farming
Forbes covers the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation’s One Block Challenge, in which Paso Robles growers commit a block of vines to regenerative practice. LXV is named among the forty-eight growers and vintners signed on, alongside Ancient Peaks, J. Lohr, Austin Hope and Copia.
Resident wine columnist Mira Advani Honeycutt on the region’s embrace of Cabernet Franc — the varietal campaign Neeta and Kunal Mittal drive each March through CabFrancMasters, and the case for Paso Robles as its American center of gravity.
Wes Hagen leads a comparative flight of five international Cabernet Francs — Loire, Friuli, Santa Ynez, Pomerol and Mendoza — at the Cass Event Center. Kelly credits Kunal and Neeta Mittal with spearheading the conference for a third consecutive year.
The CabFranc Masters media dinner at JUSTIN, with courses by executive chef Rachel Haggstrom and pairings chosen by sommelier Jason Santos. Our 2023 Blanc de Franc opens the meal, alongside bottles from Robert Hall, Mid-Point, JUSTIN and Austin Hope.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries Shop current wines
Sommelier Jason Santos and chef Charlie Paladin Wayne walk a room through five Cabernet Francs matched to dishes. Our 2022 Reserve Cabernet Franc closes the flight, shown beside Adelaida, Brecon Estate, J. Lohr and JUSTIN.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries Reserve wines
An event preview of CabFrancMasters 2025 — the comparative tasting led by educator Wes Hagen, the grand tasting of twenty-five-plus area wineries, and the industry day of panels on varietal diversification, biodiversity and market strategy.
Trade coverage of the return of CabFrancMasters — the two-day Paso Robles gathering the Mittals founded — with a consumer day of pairings and a grand tasting of more than twenty-five wineries at Cass, followed by an industry day of panels at Robert Hall.
A writers’ luncheon that opens on the Sanskrit greeting Atithi Devo Bhava and closes on the ambition to make Paso Robles the world’s center for Cabernet Franc. Neeta describes the variety as a wine that invites conversation rather than delivering a monologue. Pours ran from Blanc de Sangiovese through MESO barrel samples.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries MESO by LXV
Podcast
A fifty-minute episode of the region’s podcast built around Cabernet Franc. Host Adam Montiel gives Neeta and Kunal a segment on their tenth anniversary in the wine business — how they got in, and the thinking behind the brand. Maeve Pesquera of DAOU appears in the same episode.
Read the full article on Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance Our story
Andrew Chalk argues Paso Robles has become California’s third serious Cabernet region after Napa and Sonoma, and uses LXV to make the case. He covers The Secret, The Tempo and the MESO Cabernet Sauvignon, concluding that the house punches above its weight within the Cabernet family.
Read the full article on The Chalk Report Shop current wines
Board appointment
Neeta Mittal joins the Paso Robles CAB Collective board as CEO of LXV Wine and serves on its Marketing Committee — seating a boutique, family-run house alongside the region’s largest Cabernet producers on the group’s governing body.
Read the full article on Paso Robles Daily News Meet the founders
A seminar recap that has fun with the obvious — readers can guess which grape ranks among the Mittals’ favorites. Kunal and Neeta host; Neeta builds the food pairings with chef Charlie Paladin; the bottles poured come from France, Hungary, Chile and Paso Robles.
The Mittals host the Cabernet Franc Day kickoff dinner at their own home for a room of writers and winemakers. The wine at its center is the 2020 Reserve Cabernet Franc — 100% varietal from Portico Hills, twenty months in French oak.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries Our events
LXV is credited as one of the presenting organisations behind International Cabernet Franc Day in Paso Robles, alongside Hope Family Wines, J. Lohr and the CAB Collective. Neeta created the dishes served with chef Charlie Paladin — roast lamb, duck breast and South Indian lentil cakes.
Neeta Mittal coordinates both the seminar and the international tasting and serves as Master of Ceremonies — Kelly calls the handling masterful. Wes Hagen appears as LXV’s wine educator and estate host, and as a seminar speaker.
Profiles and interviews on the people behind the label: an Indian-American couple who turned a fog-diverted flight into a Paso Robles winery. The longer version is on our story page.
The clearest telling of where the name comes from: the classical Indian canon of sixty-four arts, and the sixty-fifth being the story each person authors for themselves. Dozier traces Neeta’s path from Indian classical dance and engineering to Paso Robles, and covers the spice blends LXV develops for cancer patients whose palates have changed.
LXV is named among the backers of Come Over October, the campaign co-founded by Karen MacNeil to get people drinking wine together again — in company that includes Jackson Family Wines, J. Lohr, Joseph Phelps, Wine Enthusiast and Napa Valley Vintners.
Radio · AM 830 KLAA
A full guest segment on Los Angeles radio. Neeta explains why Paso Robles reminded the couple of India, and how sourcing authentic Tandoori Masala from spice markets near her mother’s home south of Mumbai became the foundation of the whole approach to flavor.
Read the full article on SoCal Restaurant Show Shop the spice blends
A long-form visit built around the name itself — the sixty-four arts of living, with the guest as the sixty-fifth. It runs the full origin story: Kolhapur, engineering in Pune, a Berkeley master’s where Neeta met Kunal, and the fogbound flight that put them in Paso Robles. Armaa.N, she explains, means dreams.
Read the full article on Dallas Wine Chick About Armaa.N Estate
A founder interview in which Neeta explains the pivot: LXV began with Rhône varieties and moved to Bordeaux because Bordeaux is what the couple actually drinks. The goal, she says, is wines fanatically faithful to terroir rather than wines built to chase scores — which is what Armaa.N, planted on ground left fallow, exists to prove.
Read the full article on The Wine Write About Armaa.N Estate
A profile that finds the pattern behind Neeta: her mother, among the first in her village to be formally educated, who retired as head of a biotechnology university. It follows Neeta from Kolhapur to Shivaji University to a Berkeley master’s, and ties the spice program to her South Indian father.
Read the full article on Edible San Luis Obispo Read our story
A 2014 Bay Area feature on five women shaping Paso Robles wine — the earliest press in this archive, from the years when the winery was still finding its footing.
Editors and travel writers on the LXV Wine Lounge on Pine Street, and the spice-pairing flight that put it on the map. You can book a tasting here or explore the spice blends themselves.
A patio afternoon with live music where the chosen pour is the 2020 LXV Cabernet Franc. Kelly uses the occasion to recount the run of competition results — an outright win, Gold or Double Gold every year since — and the aroma samples that carry names like Irish Monk and Chai Garm Chai.
Read the full article on California Wines and Wineries Shop current wines
Ranked #1
A locals’ choice roundup that puts LXV at number one. The entry describes the wine-and-spice flight, the Indian heritage behind the blends, and the Pine Street address — and states plainly that no winery paid or offered incentives for inclusion.
Syndicated to MSN
LXV leads a list of five unexpected finds in Paso Robles — each pour matched to a spiced cheese chosen for that varietal. Curtin retells the 2009 storm that diverted the Mittals’ Napa-bound flight, and credits Armaa.N in the Willow Creek District for organic regenerative farming and distinctive clonal selections.
Read the full article on Johnny Jet Plan your visit
Also syndicated on MSN
Half of Sonderling’s day in Paso Robles is spent in our downtown room, which he frames as an invitation into a sensory world of wine, spice and hospitality. He relays what drew the Mittals here in the first place — a landscape that reminded them of India.
Read the full article on Paso Robles Daily News Plan your visit
Pick of the Week
Five courses by chef Matthew Roberts built around the debut MESO releases — beets and quince with the Blanc de Sangiovese, fermented rye risotto with MESO Cabernet Sauvignon, pork jowl toro with the MESO Syrah, juniper-smoked duck with an unreleased Cabernet Franc barrel sample, smoked chanterelle panna cotta with the rosé.
Pick of the Week
The most detailed published account of how the pairing actually works: cheese cubes rolled in blends drawn from the roughly 250 spices the Mittals keep at home, built to echo or deliberately push against each wine. Levine walks four — Sirocco with The Jewel, Chai with The Secret, Irish Monk with The Tempo, Herbs de Vie with the Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
Read the full article on Please the Palate Shop the spice blends
A press-trip recap that stops at our tasting room and identifies the distinguishing feature straight away — wines paired with Indian spices. The Compisis were poured Rosé of Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, Sangiovese and White Sangiovese alongside Indian food, with Jeff Strekas joining the table.
Read the full article on Bites, Flights and Sights Book a tasting
A traveler’s guide that does the useful thing and prints the numbers — current releases, reserve and library tiers with their price bands, tasting fees, and the cost of adding the spice pairing. It profiles LXV as the work of Indian immigrants making Bordeaux and Italian varieties, sold direct.
Read the full article on Strong Coffee to Red Wine Shop current wines
Listed first
LXV takes the first slot among seven distinctive Paso Robles experiences. Neeta explains the spices exist to showcase the wine, not compete with it — illustrated with a Sauvignon Blanc walked through coconut, green Hatch chile, cilantro and Meyer lemon, each isolating a different component.
Read the full article on SOMM Journal / SommTV Shop the spice blends
A travel feature that gets into the rooms themselves — the patio, the blue room, the cellar room hung with artwork — and the spice lab behind the blends. Kessler’s standout pairing was the 2019 Reserve Syrah with cloves, miso and porcini powder.
One of eight
One of eight wineries selected for the region, and singled out for the most unusual tasting in the downtown core: old-world wines set against neutral cheeses dusted in spice, alternating wine, spice, wine again, until you can pull a bottle apart. The Secret is named as the signature Bordeaux blend.
A full feature on the LXV Experience that gets the philosophy right: atithi devo bhava, the guest as divine. Decker walks the flight from Rosé of Cabernet Franc through Blanc de Sangiovese, with pairings spanning samosas and chaat masala, saag paneer, biryani spices and cherrywood-smoked salt on mango.
Arts coverage
An arts piece that treats the Pine Street lounge as a gallery — cobalt walls, dark wooden bar, maroon couches, and a concealed Library Room where paintings hang among the wine. The occasion is an exhibition of Carrie Graber’s glamorous Southern California subjects.
“Our favorite”
LXV leads the Minority-Owned Wineries section of a thirty-three-winery guide that has been kept updated for nearly a decade. Garcia calls it the authors’ favorite tasting room in Paso Robles — and mentions they joined the wine club.
Every outlet in this archive, with a link to each masthead.
The critics, columnists and correspondents whose work appears above. We are grateful to every one of them.
Writing about Paso Robles, Cabernet Franc, wine-and-spice pairing, or Indian-American winemaking? We are glad to help with samples, imagery, interviews and tasting-room visits.
