Showing posts with label Randall Grahm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Randall Grahm. Show all posts

Friday, November 20, 2015

A Proper White Wine - Bonny Doon Gravitas

Bonny Doon’s companion wine to their “A Proper Claret” red blend is just as much a delight. As with that red tribute to Bordeaux, Randall Grahm’s salute to white BDX gives old-world winemaking a new-world touch.

The 2014 Gravitas is a blend of 54% Semillon, 43.5% Sauvignon Blanc and 2.5% Orange Muscat grapes from five Central Coast vineyards - Yount Mill, Jack McGinley, Steele, Fortress and Ventana. Grahm advises that this wine will cellar well for another five years. Alcohol sits at 13.5% abv and Gravitas sells for a modest $16.

Notes on the label, as with A Proper Claret, are provided by Grahm's alter-ego Reginald ffrench-Postalthwaite. The notes describe - comically - the difficulty in finding a white wine with proper gravitas, with a few "blimeys" and "crikeys" thrown in for authenticity's sake.

The wine has a pretty golden tint and a savory nose featuring tangerine, Meyer lemon, a touch of lanolin and a bit of a floral note. The palate shows fabulous salinity - a Grahm hallmark - with citrus and an extremely refreshing acidity. The weight is great, too. It fills the mouth fully.

Pair this wine with any chicken dish - a roasted chicken with some roasted potatoes, carrots and parsnips, for instance. Pasta with cream sauce, salad with blue cheese dressing or a nice piece of fish will go great with it as well. It’s a natural, by the way, for Thanksgiving.


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Monday, April 27, 2015

Who Do You Have To Know To Get A Proper Claret Around Here?

Reginald ffrench-Postalthwaite is billed as the alter ego of the beloved, quixotic, notorious Bonny Doon winemaker Randall Grahm. His flowery prose graces the back label of the 2013 A Proper Claret, and his missive to me, accompanying a sample of the wine, is similarly evocative and properly footnoted. It may well be the only wine label in existence with footnotes.

On the label, ffrench-Postalthwaite wonders aloud - albeit in print - what one has to do to "be served a glass of Proper Claret around here?" Claret is the generic British term used for wines of Bordeaux. There may have been a jab directed at France by the word, which formerly meant something of light color. The wines of Bordeaux once actually were of light color, but that was quite a while before they stormed the Bastille.

The pejorative stuck, as did the use of the phrase "the French disease" to describe syphilis. It may or may not be true that the French fought back on that one, calling syphilis "the English disease." They also got in a shot of their own by recognizing the American colonies as independent of Great Britain, while not recognizing the wine of England as anything at all.

But, as ffrench-Postalthwaite might annotate in his footnotes, I digress. He writes me that A Proper Claret "nominally purports to represent an old-fangled style of' 'Claret,' it frankly strikes me as perhaps more of a version of the Cabernets I remember of the '60s and '70s. Slightly riper and richer than the '12 version, it is still quite elegant and restrained." Which is more than we can say for ffrench-Postalthwaite. Nearly 16,000 cases of A Proper Claret were made.

This wine is composed of a blend of red grapes, 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, 15% Tannat, 13.5% Petit Verdot, 7.7% Syrah and and .8% Petite Sirah. Did he say "point-eight-percent?" Did he say "Tannat?"

The interesting reading on the back label should not - could not - distract you from the wonderful illustration on the front, by New York City artist Bascove. The wine clocks in at a restrained 13.5% abv, no faint feat considering the high-octane grapes used in the mix. It retails for $16 and comes bottled under a proper screwcap.

The wine is as dark as night. Black fruit on the nose is adorned in customary Grahm-savory fashion by notes of sage, rosemary and a delicious black olive scent. The palate shows blackberry and cassis, but the wine is not dominated by fruit. Notes of cedar, cinnamon and cardamom play a huge role on the palate. The tannins are are firm, but elegant, and it should pair as as well with British bangers as they do with a good old American beef brisket.


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Monday, February 16, 2015

For Syrah, X Marks The Spot

"It smells like dirt."  My wife took in the wine's aroma again.  "I know," I replied.   She insisted, "No, really, it smells like soil."  "That's the idea."

Denise was amazed by the aromas wafting from the bottle after I had opened the wine.  She took the bottle and had a swig.  Oh, it was a ladylike swig, but there she was, my dainty little flower, knocking back a gulp of great wine right from the bottle.  I always think that when a wine has a great nose, I could just sit and only smell it.  But maybe a wine with a great nose should make us grab the bottle and have a blast, unable to wait for niceties like glassware.  It should compel us to have a taste, right then and there.

The Santa Maria soil of Bien Nacido Vineyard is amazing.  It darkens everything that comes from it.  Pinot Noir is roughened, Chardonnay is toughened and Syrah is marked with the X.

The darkness of a wine made from grapes grown in Bien Nacido Vineyard can be overwhelming.  The grapes for Bonny Doon's 2011 Bien Nacido Syrah come from Block X, an older portion of the vineyard planted with the Estrella River Syrah clone.  The wine retails for $50 and only 463 cases were produced.  A year and a half (or so) in French oak left its mark like a line in the dirt; a tic-tac-toe criss-cross map pointing the way to buried treasure.

It's a deep, dark wine with a nose that is nothing if not intense.  Savory meets fruit as tar, tobacco and spice add complexity to plum, blackberry and currant.  The palate carries that interplay further, with that dark fruit colored a little brighter by baking spices, pepper and meat.  And the dirt of Santa Maria.

In a brief (for him) synopsis of his career with grapes, winemaker Randall Grahm writes, "Having tried my hand at Grenache in 1982, it seemed that the following year it was time to further my Rhône education with Syrah.  (I didn’t quite have the financial resources to purchase them both. There weren’t many Syrah options, so I went with Cliff Giacobine’s fruit at the Estrella River Vyd in 1983. We continued to purchase from him until the Bien Nacido Syrah came into production and became our default source for Syrah. Not a lot was understood about Syrah in the day; these vines were terribly over-irrigated, and over-cropped; the blistering hot climate of the east side of Paso tended to really efface varietal character and led to grape musts the acidity and pHs levels of which were totally out of whack."

"The ultra-consistent older Block X, planted with the "Estrella River" clone of Syrah (I suspect without any foundational evidence that it may actually be "Serine"), produces an extremely peppery, bacon-fat version of Syrah, far more consistently than modern clones."  Grahm notes, "This clone of Syrah has largely fallen out of favor in recent years, supplanted by modern clones that are beefier, darker in color, but lack the distinctive peppery spice of the proper Syrah we love from the Northern Rhône."  Hooray for dirt.  Hooray for Santa Maria.  Hooray for Block X.


Friday, January 16, 2015

A Good Cigare Is A Smoke

To say that Randall Grahm is an iconoclast may be a little strong.  After all, he did knock down a few walls while finding his way as a winemaker.  He did not do so out of spite, of course, but as a means of redefining what was possible in the vineyards of California.  He had a go with Pinot Noir but, in a case of “right grape, wrong place,” he moved on to helping give the grapes of the Rhône Valley an official residency in the Golden State.  His Franco fascination really knows no borders, extending to the vines of Spain, Italy and Germany as well.

Grahm’s label notes say the Bonny Doon Vineyard 2010 Le Cigare Volant Réserve en bonbonne “seems to disarmingly suggest a Burgundian take on Châteauneuf, if such a notion can be fashioned.  This is not an ordinary wine.”  To which I can add, somewhat less poetically, “You got that right.”  You may be tempted to think of Le Cigare Volant Réserve as a brawny Pinot Noir.  Its roots are Rhône, though - no surprise, coming from the winemaker who is sometimes billed as The Rhône Ranger.

The wine is made from Central Coast grapes, 28% Syrah, 22% Grenache, 17% Cinsault, 17% Mourvèdre, and 16% Carignane.  Alcohol is a very restrained 13.3% abv,, which makes this a beautiful wine to sip - despite its obvious talent as a mate for food.  It retails for $79.  Grahm advises us to, “Ideally hold for a year or two (Sept. 2015-16).”  He feels the wine can stand a good 15 to 20-plus years of aging.  The iconic label art by Chuck House appears so often in my home it’s almost an installation.

This Cigare is the same blend as Le Cigare Volant normale, but for the réserve, the wine spends only a short time in barrel.  It is put in five-gallon glass carboys - bonbonnes - for twenty months of sur lie aging.  Grahm feels aging the wine in glass, while still in contact with the spent yeast cells, adds to the wine’s integration, complexity and savoriness.

The dark wine shows some truly outstanding attributes, beginning with the nose.  Black cherry fruit is delightfully muted by the savory side - black olives, tobacco, smoke and spice all have a part to play.  It's an olfactory experience to be savored, and it gets better.  In the mouth, this Cigare really gets lit.  The acidity is phenomenal and the tannins are nice and firm, so save a seat for it at the dinner table.  Flavors of plums, raspberries, blackberries and cranberries make a broad palette that showcases a spicy aspect, stretching from cinnamon to sassafras. Slightly tart on the finish, that Burgundian reference plays out nicely.



Wednesday, June 18, 2014

California Grenache: Bonny Doon Clos De Gilroy

In a recent article about California Grenache, Jon Bonné called Grenache "the Jan Brady of grapes."  He wrote that Grenache, when left to its own devices, is sometimes responsible for wines that are just not pretty enough.  He did offer, of course, that there are some great examples of California Grenache wines that are plenty pretty on their own.  Complex, even

Grenache seems well-suited to California, particularly in cooler vintages.  Sporting plenty of what the wine-buying public likes - fruit, tannins, acidity - and often available at great price points, Grenache would seem to be poised to make some noise.

Today in the California Grenache series, we sample the Bonny Doon Vineyard Clos De Gilroy Monterey County Grenache 2013.

Bonny Doon "President for Life" Randall Grahm’s scent of humor comes to the forefront on the labeling of this wine - see below.  Gilroy is the garlic capital of California - a town that truly does telegraph its whereabouts to travelers on the nearby freeway.  Think what you will, but the town is amazingly vampire-free.  

After laying on a few aioli-related puns, Grahm gets to the business end of the wine.  Made up of 75% Grenache, 17% Syrah and 8% Mourvèdre, Clos De Gilroy's grapes hail "from the Alta Loma vineyard in Greenfield (a particularly cool site for grenache) the gravelly Alamo Creek Vineyard near Santa Maria and some truly ancient mourvèdre vines in the sleepy Sacramento Delta town of Oakley, CA. "

These grapes - together with Grahm, although he claims minimal intervention - produce a wine with an absolutely brilliant nose.  Aromas of cherry and plum are dusted with a leathery layer of anise and tobacco.  The palate is big and dark, with multiple shadings of the fruits involved.  The cherry of Grenache leads the way, followed by the dark fruit and spice of the Syrah with Mourvèdre's savory notes and tannins.  There is a brooding funkiness to this wine that I find riveting.  I think it is a little too masculine to be comfortable when called "pretty," but it definitely wears its complexity well.  

And, it was another vampire-free night at chez Now And Zin.


Friday, March 22, 2013

A Pair Of Bonny Doon Wines: Le Cigare Blanc


Le Cigare Blanc is the white version of Bonny Doon Vineyard’s masterful homage to Châteuaneuf-du-Pape, Le Cigare Volant.  For the uninitiated, that red wine is named to honor a decree issued in a village in that famous wine region which banned flying saucers from ever landing there and ruining the vineyards.  The region has never encountered the need for enforcement of that decree.  The light-hearted aspect of the name sits at the crux of Bonny Doon winemaker/owner Randall Grahm's sense of humor, a sensibility that permeates his writing and his labels.  As "president-for-life" of Bonny Doon, it is his wit that marks the wines and the marketing effort behind them.

Le Cigare Blanc Beeswax Vineyard 2011

This blend of 62% Grenache Blanc and 38% Roussanne is Grahm’s tip of the hat to the white blends of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.  He e explains on the label, “Resistance is futile,” and he is correct.

The grapes come from the Beeswax Vineyard in the Arroyo Seco AVA of Monterey County and are
biodynamically farmed.  2011 was a particularly cool vintage, so the wine offers great flavor at a modest alcohol level of 12.5% abv.  1,650 cases were produced and they all are contained under what Grahm knows as a Stelvin closure.  You may know it as a screwcap.

The wine underwent a complete malolactic fermentation, so the mouthfeel is full and rich.  Aging took place in French oak barrels, and the suggested retail price is $28.

Le Cigare Blanc has a golden tint and a nose of apricots and cantaloupes, with a nutty little backbeat.  A quince flavor leads the way on the palate, with a savory quality - an almost salty quality - that intrigues me greatly.  Despite the intensity of the fruit here, it is the salinity that stays with me as a reminder.  The acidity is razor sharp and ready for whatever food you'd like to have with a white wine.  This wine's complexity is - to me, anyway - literally dazzling.  As much as I admire Grahm's red wines, Le Cigare Blanc may well be my favorite of the Bonny Doon line.

Le Cigare Blanc Réserve 2010

The Réserve version of Le Cigare Blanc is labeled as en bonbonne, meaning the wine is aged in a carboy - a big glass jug.  Grahm feels this type of aging allows the wine to retain its freshness over a number of years.

The 2010 vintage is the second for this version of the wine.  The fruit again comes from Beeswax Vineyard, while the mix is 56% Grenache Blanc and 44% Roussanne.  Easy on the alcohol again, too, with 12.4% abv.  Bonny Doon produced only 498 cases, and the screwcap closure is used, as in all of Grahm's bottlings.  He says you can tuck this one away until 2020 without a worry.  According to Grahm, it tastes younger every time he samples it.  The unfiltered wine may appear partly cloudy in your glass - it did in mine.  It is sold only to DEWN club members at a retail price of $50.

It is highly interesting how two wines of such a similar nature can be so different.  Clearly, the aging process tells the story of these fraternal twins.  The Réserve - aged in glass - shows a very different bouquet than its wood-aged counterpart.  Strong floral scents  mingle with orange peel and a bit of almond on the nose, while the palate is youthful and breezy, with plenty of citrus.  The two wines do share certain qualities, though.  The bracing acidity and the savory taste are here, with that lovely salinity lasting long into the finish.


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Friday, March 15, 2013

Bonny Doon Wine With The Grapes Of Italy And Spain


Winemaking is a tough enough profession, but a winemaker who can make world-class puns at the drop of a hat while doing the Sunday New York Times crossword and microblogging on Twitter is a man to be admired.

Besides the Rhône-varietal wines Randall Grahm is known for, he also likes to dabble in some other grape nationalities, too.  He has done some interesting things with Riesling, and the two wines featured here show his work with Spanish and Italian grape varieties grown in the Bonny Doon Ca’ del Solo estate vineyard.  They were provided to me for review.


Bonny Doon Nebbiolo 2009

Grahm’s love affair with the grape of Barolo has either come to an end or reached a hiatus, as far as growing it is concerned.  The ‘09 vintage of Bonny Doon Nebbiolo is the last from the biodynamic Ca’ del Solo Vineyard in Monterey - at least for a while.

Grahm thinks Nebbiolo is “one of the true genius grape varieties."  He says, "there is a remarkable soulfulness to the best examples of the variety, and this particular one, I submit, stands among the very best.”

In previous vintages, Grahm's Nebbiolo grapes were partially air-dried to concentrate ripeness. He says the finale year for the vineyard provided a warmer growing season, so air-drying was not employed.  All the grapes used here are estate-grown Nebbiolo.  Alcohol kicks in at 14.4% abv, and only 508 cases were made, for Bonny Doon’s DEWN wine club members.  Sealed under a screwcap, it goes for $45.

The wine has a medium-dark tint in the glass and smells quite brightly of red plums and blueberries.  The fairly noticeable whiff of a fresh pack of Kools - my dad’s brand when I was growing up - provides an interesting angle to the bouquet.  On the palate, a youthful fruit expression is up front when first poured.  Then, over the course of an evening, its mood turns darker and a bit more savory.  With so much going on, it’s a great wine to contemplate.  It’s also a great wine to accompany a meal.  The tannins are firm enough for your grandma’s meatballs, but not at all harsh.


Bonny Doon Sparkling Albariño, Central Coast 2010

This 100% Albariño sparkler uses grapes from Jespersen Vineyard (84%) and Ca’ del Solo (16%.)  It comes under a crown cap closure, requiring a churchkey like a beer or soda might.  You should remove the cap very slowly, since the contents are under pressure and the bubbles like to free themselves quickly when they have the chance.  Alcohol content is quite low - 12.5% abv - and only 617 cases were produced.  It’s also available only to Bonny Doon’s wine club members.

Those bubbles - when they are freed - are quite large on top of the pale golden liquid.  The nose smells a bit of toast, but more of fruit.  A zesty lemon-lime component frames the aroma of peaches quite nicely.  The refreshing acidity is a delight, and flavors of citrus linger on the finish.  Grahm suggests you try this with Korean barbecue, and that’s a great idea.  It should also make a nice pairing with any number of other dishes, or sipped on its own as a toasting vehicle.  $32


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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Grenache And Syrah From Bonny Doon


Randall Grahm is credited with being the original Rhone Ranger, a pioneer in making wine from the grapes of the Rhone Valley, as expressed through California terroir.  His affinity for Grenache is a credit to his sensibilities, and a gift to those of us who love the variety.  His various efforts in the field of Syrah are, arguably, unmatched in California.

I don’t quote from press releases often, but in this case I will.

“Asked about this first vintage, Grahm commented, 'It was a different day in California, Rhône varieties weren’t exactly easy to come by and no one really knew what they were all about.'  He joked, 'Could Grenache actually produce a red wine?  Syrah was grown in someplace called “Côte-Rôtie.  That had to be blazing hot.' 

Grahm is set to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhone Rangers on March 22, 2013.  No one in California is more deserving of that honor.

These samples were provided by Bonny Doon for review.

Bonny Doon Clos de Gilroy 2011

The fruit used for this wine does not come from Gilroy- the California town known as garlic capital of the world - and that results in my favorite of Grahm’s many puns: “Clos, but no Cigare.”   It’s an homage to that tiny town that one can smell from the freeway.

The fruit - 83% Grenache, 7% Cinsault, 6% Syrah and 4% Mourvèdre - actually comes from nine Central Coast vineyards, largely the estate vineyard in Soledad and the Alta Loma Vineyard in Greenfield.  The fruit is destemmed and cold soaked to improve color and flavor.  Grahm calls it a cool climate Grenache with bright fruit and a hint of black pepper.

The nose is certainly bright enough, with cherry galore and a hint of tart raspberry.  The savory aspect - a hallmark of Grahm's wines - comes in the form of an almost smoky mineral shading.  On the palate, the cherry flavors are draped a little more heavily in that funky earthiness.  A minty aspect also appears in mid palate and remains on the finish.  I’m an easy touch for Bonny Doon wines anyway, but I particularly like the way this one drinks.

The winemaker notes - in Grahm's own humorous way - advise pairing with “grilled meat or vegetables, roasted poultry or the aioli platter (naturellement).”  It’s also a big hit with garlic naan from my nearby Indian restaurant.  The wine carries a 13.3% abv number, and 767 cases were produced - for wine club members.  It is bottled under a screwcap - get over it.  $18


Bonny Doon Syrah Bien Nacido X-Block, Santa Maria Valley 2009

This big, bold, 100% Syrah comes from Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley, possibly the best source for grapes in the huge Central Coast AVA.  Grahm believes the Syrah clone planted in Bien Nacido’s X-Block is identical to the strain from France’s Côte Rôtie region.  The cool climate of that part of the Santa Maria Valley  allows full aromatic expression of that clone.
Even for a cool climate site, this is a cool vintage.

If Clos de Gilroy offers bright colors, this Syrah turns and runs from that.  It's dark.  Dark in color, dark on the nose - savory meat notes rival the trod-upon blackberry - and dark on the palate, with the standard Bonny Doon savory streak taken to an extreme.  There is a rather refreshing acidity, and a hint of green - possibly a result of some whole cluster inclusion in this wine.

Grahm says if you pair this wine with roasted lamb, you won’t be sorry.  Please decant, or at least let the glass sit for half an hour or so for full enjoyment.  Under the screwcap is a 13.3% abv wine, of which 843 cases were produced.  It was made for DEWN wine club members.  $42


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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Three Syrah Wines From Bonny Doon Vineyards


Bonny Doon Vineyards’ chief Randall Grahm has made wine from many different grape varieties during his illustrious career, but the ones with which he really resonates are the grapes of the Rhône Valley.  He has been labeled "the original Rhône Ranger" for his pioneering effort of making Rhône-style wines in California.  Grahm supplied me with samples of three of his Syrah wines, which demonstrate his ability to choose vineyards and do the best work possible with the fruit found there.

It is this connection to the sense of place - terroir - offered by different vineyards that has captured Grahm's fascination.  He considers his winemaking efforts now to be vins de terroir - in which the grapes do the work - rather than vins d'effort, in which the winemaker does the work.  Grahm described his laissez faire methods in a recent article, "We spend more time in the vineyard so we don't have to spend so much time in the cellar."

Bonny Doon Le Pousseur Central Coast Syrah 2009

This is the entry-level Syrah from Bonny Doon.  The grapes are 56% Alamo Creek Vineyard, 32% Bien Nacido Vineyard and 12% Chequera Vineyard.  A blurb addressing Grahm's hands-off style of winemaking, with minimal intervention, adorns the label.  The alcohol content is a restrained 13.5% abv and the wine retails for $25.

The wine is inky black, no light gets through.  The bouquet is as dark as the color, showing black fruit and bacon fat.  Plums and blackberries define the palate, but the fruit has to coexist with dark, savory notes.  Everything meshes seamlessly in a wave of minerality.  This is entry-level wine at its highest order.


Bonny Doon Alamo Creek Syrah, San Luis Obispo County, 2008

Grahm calls this one "intensely concentrated and mineral-rich."  The vineyard is located northeast of the town of Santa Maria ("where the wild things roam") and where rock outcroppings of the Alamo Creek Valley indicate the minerals to come.  At 13.5% abv, the wine retails for $35.  Again, decant before enjoying.

The wines of the Santa Maria area are among my favorites in California, mineral-driven and dark, with great complexity.  This wine is dark in appearance, and sports a dark nose of blackberry and black currant.  Gobs of tar aromas make it hard to stop sniffing.  The palate, once decanted, is extremely smooth with fine tannins.  Flavors are dark and rich, with a full ripeness that just explodes on the palate.


Bonny Doon Bien Nacido Syrah, Santa Maria Valley, 2008

Grahm's label notes: "The Syrah from Bien Nacido Vineyard is most evocative of the character of the genuine Northern Rhône article of any Syrah we see, likely owing to the exceptionally cool climate, the age of its (X-block) vines and calcareous soil."  The wine has a 13.9% abv number and retails for $40.  Grahm recommends decanting an hour or two for best effect.

Inky black, the wine is just as dark on the nose.  Minerals come forth strongly, with hints of tobacco under the black plum aromas.  Nice, chewy tannins decorate the palate, with extremely dark and savory fruit flavors.  There is a smattering of pepper and roast beef, with a beautiful minerality.  Pairing with dark chocolate and sea salt is magnificent.  It is quite possibly the best California Syrah I've had, and easily rivals the top French entries.

For something to drink right away, any one of these Syrahs beats the label off a cult Cab on the experience alone, not to mention the lower price points.  All three are the kind of wines you'll want to pop open for special occasions - but life is short.  Don't wait.


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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Bonny Doon Contra: A Modern Day Field Blend


Bonny Doon Vineyards of Santa Cruz, California is the workplace of Randall Grahm, The Rhone Ranger.  He's been in front of the pack for so long, people recognize him by the back of his head.  Folks thought Grahm was crazy when he decided Rhone grape varieties were the right thing to do in California.  Now they have to think of other reasons.

His Contra red blend is so named because of its contrarian stance in the face of modern winemaking.  The grapes come primarily from Contra Costa County, and the label calls them, "mostly old-fangled grape varieties from mostly older vineyards."  That's the way Grahm rolls, as he uses his skills to produce wines that reflect the terroir from which they come.  The Carignane grapes used in Contra are said to come from 100-plus year-old vines, mixed with other varieties.

Grahm sees it as a straightforward wine that both looks to the past and the future.  In the past, winemaker intervention was minimal because they didn’t have the technology to intervene.  Tomorrow, Grahm envisions, winemakers will choose a return to those simpler times.

Contra is a blend of 68% Carignane grapes and 38% Syrah.  The Carignane comes from several vineyards.  The Syrah is mainly from Alamo Creek Vineyard in San Luis Obispo, with some from Bien Nacido Vineyard in Santa Maria.  It’s the latter which gets credit from Grahm for the “exceptionally vibrant, peppery/minty, smoked meat note” in the wine.

There’s a caveat, though.  Contra is indicated as an Old Vine Field Blend on the label, which I am excited about.  “Field blend” is the term for the way grapes were grown once upon a time.  Vineyards were planted with different varieties scattered about, with only a "more of this, less of that" attitude from row to row.  These mixed grapes were grown, harvested and vinified together.  Modern winemaking keeps everything separate until the blending, which occurs in the cellar.  The old way had the wine blended, so to speak, out in the field.

Since the different grapes in Contra are from different vineyards, “field blend" is not a completely accurate term.  Considering Grahm's literate nature and his efforts at being transparent in labeling, the wording seemed odd to me.  So I did what people do when they want to check with Grahm.  I tweeted him.  Here are his responses:

“Grapes from multiple vyds in Oakley, Antioch, but each vyd. itself is more or less a field blend. #oldskool”


“The vyds are a mix of carignane, zin and mourvedre. Some blocks are mostly one thing or another.”


“Normally, we will try to keep them separate as their ripening is usually slightly different (within days apart).”


“For Contra, we don't have to be quite as precise in segregating them, and we can also co-ferment.”

So there it is.  A field blend, at least on the Carignane side.

Grahm now publishes the ingredients of his wines right on the label.  Contra's transparency blurb shows grapes, tartaric acid and sulfur dioxide, with indigenous yeast, yeast nutrients and oak chips used in the winemaking process.  As in Bonny Doon's other wines, Contra is sealed with a Stelvin closure, otherwise known as a screwcap.  The alcohol content is 13.7% abv.

Sitting in the glass, Contra is very dark in color.  It's inky in the middle, purple around the edge. A nose of blackberry has a big whiff of alcohol on it until it blows off.  Give it ample decanting time and you'll be fine.  Once the wine airs out, the nose is all dark fruit and tar.  The palate shows more of the same.  Blackberry and black cherry flavors lead the way for a brambly taste that falls in behind the fruit.  The tannins are great, with enough muscle to handle any kind of food, yet not so forceful that drinkability suffers.


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Monday, July 23, 2012

Summer Wine: Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc 2010


When I ran into Bonny Doon Vineyard’s founder and President For Life, Randall Grahm, at the Los Angeles Rhone Rangers tasting event, he seemed baffled at the popularity of his Le Cigare Blanc.  Grahm told me he never thought he’d see a “wellspring of interest in white Rhone grape varieties,” hypothesizing that it may have been connected with the Mayan calendar and the end of the world.  If that’s the case, drink up.  There’s not much time left to enjoy it.

The grapes for this wine - 55% Roussanne and 45% Grenache Blanc - come from Beeswax Vineyard, a biodynamically-farmed plot in the Arroyo Seco AVA in Monterey County.  The Bonny Doon website describes, “Surrounded on three sides by wilderness and shielded from the cool Pacific Coast winds by the Santa Lucia Mountains, Beeswax Vineyard grows complex, concentrated and mineral intensive grapes, produced from deeply rooted vines."

It’s called, on the label, “white wine of the earth,” and the minerality found in it bears that out.  At a breezy 12.7% abv, this wine refreshes, and won’t leave you feeling woozy on the porch.

For the uninitiated, the name is taken from Bonny Doon’s flagship wine, Le Cigare Volant.  It’s a reference to a cigar-shaped flying saucer reportedly seen at one time over the vineyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  The local government feared these aliens would damage the sacred crop, so a decree was issued banning the spaceships.  It must have worked, as I don’t think the Rhone Valley has been bothered by UFOs since then.  As a remembrance, Le Cigare Blanc comes bottled under a screw cap bearing the likeness of an alien.

The wine shows a nice color - a light golden hue - in the glass.  I smell apricots, tropical fruit, citrus and cantaloupe, with a soft vanilla note from the French oak wafting in and out.  On the palate, pears and apricots are joined by a melon rind minerality.  There’s the suggestion of an almond -butter-and-quince sandwich in there, too, with a savory note on the finish, which lingers long and well.

The acidity is fantastic, and makes me want a pork chop, or a nice soft cheese.  In my brief chat with Grahm, he explained the popularity of Le Cigare Blanc by saying, “white Rhone grapes, especially Roussanne, are fabulous food wines.”  We already knew that, and - presumably - so do the aliens.


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Friday, June 8, 2012

Rhone Rangers Los Angeles 2012


"From out of the west with the speed of light and a hearty ‘hi-yo Cinsault’..."

There was no clatter of hooves beating upon the dusty pavement of downtown Los Angeles, no fiery steed, no faithful Indian companion.  There were SUVs revving at the traffic light, parking lot attendants and a pretty good Indian restaurant around the corner.

The Rhone Rangers did, however, ride into Los Angeles to pour their wines on June 2, 2012 at Vibiana, a former cathedral in downtown Los Angeles which has been converted into an event venue.  It’s a sunny and open space with beautiful architectural lines.

In case you are uninitiated, there is an organization of winemakers who are wild about the grapes of the Rhone Valley.  These Rhone Rangers - mostly of the U.S. West Coast - meet every so often to pay tribute to those French grapes.  It’s a tasting event like no other, where the expression of the Rhone grape varieties in other terroir is explored.

Leading Rhone Ranger Randall Grahm, of Bonny Doon Vineyards, referred to the event space, Vibiana, as a “decommissioned church” in a tweet before the event began.  It still shows up on Google Maps as “Cathedral of St. Vibiana.”  Like many of us, Mr. Grahm worships at the altar of the vine.

Grahm’s Bonny Doon VIneyards was present, with Grahm himself behind the table.  I had never run into him at a Southern California tasting event before, so it was a real treat to get a face-to-face meet with the witty, erudite, social-media-addicted, original Rhone Ranger of the California wine world.  Since he is noted for his minute-by-minute presence on Twitter, I wasn’t too surprised to catch him in what looks like mid-tweet.  I apologize that I didn't think to get another, more suitable, image in the crush of people around the Bonny Doon table.  I did get the chance to speak with him, briefly, while tasting.  His comments will be featured in an upcoming podcast on the Now And Zin Wine Report.

The Bonny Doon wines are represented by the iconic Le Cigare Volant, described by Grahm as “A blend of grenache, syrah, and mourvèdre with just a soupçon of cinsault.”   I sampled a different kind of red, the Clos de Gilroy, a Grenache/Syrah/Cinsault blend taken from various Monterey County vineyards.  It’s a fresh and vibrant red that’s perfect for summer use.  Speaking of warm weather, the 2010 Le Cigare Blanc, Beeswax Vineyard, is an exciting white blend in which Grahm tips his beret to Châteauneuf-du-Pape.  Roussanne and Grenache Blanc mix it up with gorgeous expressions of fruit, minerals and acidity.  Bonny Doon‘s 2011 Vin Gris de Cigare rosé shows light cherry and strawberry flavors and aromas in a nice, dry framework.

Winemaker’s daughter Maggie Tillman poured the fruit of her father’s labor.  Bob Tillman is the grower and winemaker for the Paso Robles family outfit of Alta Colina.  Big, attention-getting wines are the rule here, like their 2010 Estate Marsanne.  It spends 18 months in oak and is not a bit shy about it.  This one would be a great choice for the holidays, with its bounty of flavor.  Their refreshing 2011 Grenache Blanc is the first varietal release they’ve done with that grape.  Big bold reds - Grenache, Mourvedre, GSM - round out the menu.

Acquiesce Vineyards, near Lodi, brought some of the more beautiful bottlings I found at the event.  Their wines are packaged in imported French bottles.  Owner and winemaker Susan Tipton says Acquiesce is Lodi’s only all-white wine winery.  There are some interesting facets to their wines.  The herbaceousness and salinity of the Grenache Blanc, the nuttiness of the Roussanne and the memory of snap peas in the Belle Blanc blend of those two grapes are delightful.  The rosé is made from Grenache, and produced like a white wine, not from a juice bleed-off.

Cornerstone Cellars of Napa Valley has a rosé that was a big hit on this warm afternoon.  Their 2011 Stepping Stone Corallina comes from their millennially-priced line. Green elements indicate the whole cluster press that was used and this pinkie is also not of the saignée method.  In fact the fruit comes from their dedicated Syrah vineyard intended only for use in the rosé

Ridge Vineyards has been doing great things with grapes since before Apple put the “i” in Cupertino.  They are probably best known for their extensive line of Zinfandels, but for this show they stayed true to the Rhone varieties.  Tart Carignan, brooding Petite Sirah and spicy Syrah all bear the mark of Rhone specialist John Olney, who took charge of the Lytton Springs winery in 1999.

Rhone specialists Curtis Winery of Santa Barbara County brought cool-climate Syrah and Grenache which display a tartness I like a lot. Their Heritage Blanc, a 60/40 mix of Viognier and Roussanne, has a lovely floral aspect and a nice acidity.

Every winery seemed to have a great, floral, aromatic Viognier on hand.  Clayhouse Wines, Adelaida Cellars and Ecluse Wines - all of Paso Robles - are standouts.  Ecluse does theirs in ⅓ steel, ⅔ oak for a full and creamy treat.


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Sunday, December 11, 2011

WINE EXPERTS PONDER FUTURE WINE


wine news

At the recent Wine Future in Hong Kong event, three noted wine experts looked into their crystal balls and spoke of changes on wine's horizon.

An article by Richard Siddle in Harper's Wine & Spirits Trade Review cites some oeno-prognostication from California winemaker Randall Grahm, wine critic Stephen Spurrier and Master of Wine Tim Atkin.

Grahm, the visionary head of California's Bonny Doon Vineyards, sees  winemakers going for a more nutritional approach.  Grahm envisioned wines in the future would have a "life force" element resulting from winemakers gaining an understanding of how to get the most from their soil.  This would be useful, according to Grahm, as a means of coping with climate change.

The panel presented a unanimous vote for wine regions around the Black Sea having enormous unrealized potential.  

Spurrier identified what he feels are the three best areas of opportunity for wine's future: Vermentino, Cabernet Franc and English sparkling wines.

Atkin branded Turkish wine as his pick for great growth, although he added that it's possible the greatest wine region worldwide has not yet been discovered.



Thursday, January 28, 2010

Ca' del Solo Albarino 2008


Bonny Doon Vineyard's Randall Grahm has two driving forces in the present phase of his arc as a winemaker.  One is to make wines which express a sense of place - terroir - and the other is to achieve and maintain a green attitude toward winemaking.  With his Ca' del Solo Albarino, he makes great strides on both counts.

His terroir is fully on display in this wine, a zesty and mineral-laden representation of the earth from his Salinas Valley vineyard.  It is also certified Biodynamic, a front-burner issue for Grahm these days.  Grahm's needs have been met with this beautiful white - and so have ours.

The wine pours up a pale yellow-green in the glass.  It's wonderfully aromatic, with floral notes, a ton of citrus and plenty of minerals. It has a nose that keeps you busy.  It's one of those wines that smells so good you might have to remind yourself to drink it.  Please don't forget to do so.  On the palate, this Albarino is nice and crisp, a very clean taste - zesty is the word that keeps popping into my head - and it finishes clean.

Grahm has a proclivity for unheralded grapes.  While Albarino doesn't really qualify as unheralded for me, the other two grapes in the mix are decidedly lesser stars.  Loureiro and Treixadura both hail from northern Portugal and are used mainly as blending grapes in crisp, dry white wines.

Variety:  75% Albarino, 21% Loureiro, 4% Treixadura
Appellation:  California > Monterey County
Vineyard:  Ca' del Solo
Vintage:  2008
Alcohol Level:  12.8%
Price:  $20
Acquisition disclaimer:  Provided for purpose of review

Monday, January 11, 2010

Wines For Rockers: Red Zeppelin

Red Zeppelin WineI ran across another rock'n'roll winery for your rocking and drinking pleasure. Red Zeppelin Winery is located in Cayucos, CA, just up Highway One from Morro Bay. It's an interesting part of California, and the Red Zeppelin wines are made of grapes taken from several nice areas near there. The fruit comes from Paso Robles, Monterey County and San Luis Obispo County.

Unlike other wines with rock'n'roll labels, Red Zeppelin seems to be a wine first and a marketing ploy second. I make this statement without the benefit of an actual tasting.  With what seems to be a good track record by the winemaker, a raft of awards and the fact that they've been doing it for a while now - since 1991 - I feel justified in biting on the hype.

One corner of Red Zeppelin's website describes a rather bizarre link between the dirigible on the label and Randall Grahm's Le Cigare Volant. It's worth reading. There, you'll also find that Red Zeppelin wines have won several awards and been praised by no less than the San Francisco Chronicle and Rachel Ray.

Their flagship wine is the Black Zeppelin 2005. This is a Paso Robles Syrah with a healthy dose of Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet Sauvignon blended with it. The Red Zeppelin Syrah 2005 hails from Bear Valley Vineyard in Monterey County. 99% Syrah, with 1% "white varietal." The Red Zeppelin Vinidiction is a non-vintage blend from Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties, with 55% Cab and 45% Syrah. Red Zeppelin also makes a line called White Zeppelin, featuring a Riesling, a Chardonnay and a Viognier.

These wines are a little hard to find. Other than the winery's website, only a handful of retailers carry the line. There does not appear to be a tasting room associated with the winery, and tours are not given.  On January 11th, 2009, Wine Woot was offering a three pack of reds - one of each - for just under $50.

Winemaker Stillman Brown seems to be a fun-loving winemaker, indeed. Click on Swillyidle to find out what else he's been up to.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

"Been Doon So Long: A Randall Grahm Vinthology" (review)

Been Doon So LongWhen a person takes his  passionate interests very seriously, he runs the risk of becoming a geek.  Ask anyone who has seen all the Star Trek movies more than once.  Ask anyone who has built a computer from scratch, for fun.  Ask Randall Grahm.

He takes wine as he takes his other passions - very seriously, but in a not-so-serious sort of way.  That which he holds dear he treats with a razor-sharp wit.  The results are smartly funny and comically smart.

Literature is obviously something very close to his soul, yet he can throw down parodies of great works like a morning-show deejay throws down parodies of Michael Jackson songs.  He's the Weird Al Yankovic of the Dewey Decimal System.  His love and knowledge of wine is beyond question, yet he named his flagship wine after a French flying-saucer-in-the-vineyard story.  And a very serious wine it is.

Now Grahm has written a book in which he lets his geek flag fly.  Been Doon So Long starts with a pun utilizing his winery's name and continues with unabated geekness throughout.

Grahm's writing is rich and complex with layer upon layer peeling away to reveal nuances guaranteed to make the wine geek in you come out and party.

The founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard fills each page with his extensive oenological knowledge and expansive literary and historical references.  This is quite entertaining to a reader with some background knowledge about wine in general and Grahm specifically.  Anyone attempting to pierce this tome without at least a cursory exposure to his wry and sometimes tangled wit is treading ground which may prove to be too hard for tilling.

Grahm has written this book for those "in the know," and it will take either a vast bank of knowledge or constant Wikipedia usage to keep up with him.  Most of the humor - besides being unrelentingly oblique - is rooted nearly completely in wine lore.  In his Ten Ways You Know You’ve Met a Real Wine Geek, my favorite is number nine: "He has intimated that he would like to 'date' Jancis."  If you aren't aware that Jancis Robinson is a world-renowned wine authority the joke is clearly lost, and that is probably the most accessible item on the ten-item list which contains 16 footnotes.

Randall Grahm reads his bookThat said, the market for this book is most likely people who like Bonny Doon and Randall Grahm.  It may not be for everyone, but Grahm certainly knows his audience.

One chapter details the evolution of the labels of the Bonny Doon family, from the rather plain-looking early ones for the Bonny Doon Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, through "Old Telegram," "Le Cigare Volant," "Clos de Gilroy and "Ca del Solo" to "Cardinal Zin" and the beautifully understated label for "Ca del Solo Albarino."

A great portion of Been Doon So Long consists of parodies of great art.  Many of his literary parodies were created as promotional support for his wines.  In newsletters that were eagerly awaited by his fans, he hawked his wares in the various voices of Thomas Pynchon, Franz Kafka and James Joyce.  He even utilizes the hedonistic descriptive style of one Robert Parker.  My favorite is Don Quijones, the Man for Garnacha, or A Confederacy of Doonces.  A companion chapter has Grahm delving into the world of verse, taking poetic license with everything from The Inferno to Howl. Having these parodies collected in one volume is no doubt the best Christmas gift many of his fans received.

Writing about some of his recurring themes Grahm cites, "the banality of Chardonnay, the pretentiousness of Napa Valley, the banal pretentiousness of Napa Valley Chardonnay...lead to a heartfelt cry for tolerance of diverse wine styles and the oddball grape varieties."  As a wine drinker who is relentlessly drawn to to wines made from grapes little known to me, I relate well to his footnoted feelings of ABC, "Anything But Cabernet (or Chardonnay.)"  Nowadays, there are plenty of California winemakers dabbling in the Rhone varieties; any one of them might be referred to as a Rhone Ranger.  Grahm, in the mid 1980s, was, more or less, THE Rhone Ranger.  Just as the California wine pioneers before him did, Grahm's Bonny Doon helped pave the way for other dreamers who kicked clods of dirt in between their rows of Roussanne.

From a literary standpoint, Grahm seems pathologically obsessed with notation, footnotes appearing in his writing almost as frequently as adjectives.  This allows him to cram in triple the information that the normal structure of a sentence would allow.  I don't remember seeing it, but I'm sure somewhere within the pages there is a footnote within a footnote.  His full commitment to the obscure reference at least partially explains his dependence upon footnotes.

If that sounds a tad negative, please note - or footnote, if you will - that I really enjoy interesting reading, even when there is a dangerously long tangential offshoot waiting around every preposition.  Grahm's writing is indeed interesting.  I also admire a good obscure reference from time to time, as long as it is fully explained in the footnotes.

Anyone who has ever enjoyed a Bonny Doon wine could find something to like about Been Doon So Long.  Grahm relates wine to the worlds of song, story, stage and screen in a most entertaining fashion.  In a way, this book exhibits Grahm's roots and influences in the same way wine exhibits the roots and influences of the grapes.  It's his terroir on display here.  If you are in on the jokes, the book will have you convulsing in laughter.  If you are on the outside of his references looking in, better pay close attention to those footnotes.