2014 Birichino Grenache Vieilles Vignes Besson Vineyard. The story (loosely taken from Comiskey’s “American Rhone)”:
Back in the early 80s, Randall Grahm locates a Grenache vineyard called Besson on the CA Central Coast. The vineyard lies between Gilroy and Morgan Hill, west of 101. Planted in 1910, the vineyard would be considered “SCM”, except that it lies at an elevation below 400’. He blends this Grenache with North Coast Cabernet and sells it as “Claret.”
At the time, Grahm had a couple of advisors, Kermit Lynch and Daryl Corti. Lynch suggests a blend with Syrah. Good Syrah was hard to find in the early to mid 80s in CA. RG tries some fruit from Joseph Phelps, but is underwhelmed. Finally, he procures some Paso Syrah from Estrella River Vineyard. He blends the Besson Grenache with the Paso Syrah and takes it to Corti for a taste. Corti suggests it needs some Mataro. According to Comiskey, Grahm responds “What’s Mataro?” Grahm finds some Mataro - first proximate to Besson on the Central Coast and later from ancient vineyards in Contra Costa near Oakley.
Grahm blends in the Mataro, likes it and thinks - why not a California version of a CdP? Mix in a little RG marketing genius, and the result? “Le Cigare Volant” - - flying cigar or flying saucer!!!
Fast forward about 30 years and we have Birichino, a winery founded in Santa Cruz by two Bonny Doon alums, Alex Krause and John Locke in 2008. This is a two man show and they take their work and this historic vineyard very seriously. The wine: 13% abv. Medium light ruby, expressive aromatics. On the palate, cherry, strawberry and a spicy herbal element. Penetrating and savory, lingering aftertaste. Enjoyable and distinctive with upside. The wine (a screaming bargain at less than $25) is worthy of the backstory!
Well, I meant the East Coast of good ol’ USA. My only problem with CSW is that a lot of things they bring in are in small quantities that tend to sell out quickly and it’s difficult to assemble a mixed case when the quantities can change hour-by-hour (this has happened to me before a couple of times, especially after an email blast).
I really like this wine and am looking forward to the tasting room they will be opening soon in Santa Cruz. Great guys and great juice. If you can find a picture of the old, gnarled vines at Besson you will appreciate the source even more.
Ian Brand makes a beautiful wine from this great vineyard:
2014 La Marea Grenache Old Vine Besson Vineyard
I LIKE THIS WINE: 92 points
13.8% abv. Light ruby red, expressive aromatics. Strawberry, cranberry and a touch of cinnamon spice. Well balanced and lively, lots of acidic grip. Lingering aftertaste. Nicely done by Ian and his team. Should continue to evolve and improve over the near term.
John and Alex bring the majority of their grapes to our winery, so we see almost all of the old vine fruit off of Besson (they make an OV Zin as well from George Besson’s ‘Home’ property). Angela Osbourne gets a small allocation of the Besson Grenache, but otherwise we keep it in house.
Ours differs from Birichino in that we get a specific vineyard block, in the rocky alluvium down by Uvas Creek, and we run ours 50% whole cluster, 20 mos in barrique and puncheon with a new barrel.
Birichino brings in 3-5 lots every year, and they see somewhere in the 20-30% cluster vicinity (if memory serves, it could be more), 10 months in barrique, all used barrels. Birichino also does 1-2 tons in a passito style, where they dry the grapes in George’s barn for 10 days or so, then we ferment that 100% whole cluster. Most of that gets blended back into the main lot, but they do bottle about 15 cases of it on its own.
I bottle my Grenache under cork, they do theirs under stelvin. I’m usually a vintage behind them.
It’s neat to look at the two side by side, because it’s two different philosophies of the vineyard in the same production environment, picked at the same time (more or less), versus Angela’s version. Both ours and the Birichino are 100% vineyard and variety.
It’s one of my favorite Grenaches every year, which is why it gets its own bottling.