Visited the Ian Brand Family tasting room in Carmel Valley last weekend. Hostess Erin took great care of me and lead me though all the wines. She showed great and passion and knowledge of the wines as we tasted. She also gave me a great tip on a new restaurant HOME in Soquel that we tried out on our Anniversary. Thanks Erin.
Anyway, back to wine. All of the wines had great balance to them. No fruit bombs here, good acid. I took home a nice selection to taste and evaluate further. The Petite Sirah was probably my favorite of the tasting. Let’s see when I revist down the road. All the wines here were best of the tasting rooms in the area I have visited and among the most attractively priced. Have a feeling I will be back for more soon…
Sean
2016 Le P’tit Paysan Mourvedre Rosé Pierre’s Pirouette- USA, California, Central Coast, San Benito County (10/8/2017)
Clear with very light orange and rose hues. Bright acid, minerality and sharp citrus fruit on the nose. Tart Rubaarb, Strawberry and Bing Cherry with med rich mouth feel (some malo) maybe a hint of oak and a rich but acidic lingering finish. More than one dimensional. It has some complexity and good length on the finish. I. Can see why this is popular choice for Le Petit Paysan patrons. IMO so much more intriguing at cellar temp rather than chilled… (90 pts.)
Great to see a note on Ian’s wines. I really like what he is doing and it is great to hear him talk about sourcing fruit from our region. Would love to hear about your visit to Home -it is on my list- sure miss Theo’s that was at that location many moons ago. I think that is where the original “brown bag” dinners in Santa Cruz started
good note, Sean. I tasted all of Ian’s releases this summer and found them very good quality. I came across his wines as part of the Albarino Summit I moderated in Paso Robles. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the note, Sean. This region is perfectly suited for bright, minerally wines with the onshores off the bay and the granites, limestones and chock rocks in the hills. I’m glad you saw those pieces, and that you enjoyed the wine.
Ian - Home is great. Very interesting. High quality. Totally worthwhile dining experience. And this region has so much to offer.
Doug – if you think six wines represents all of our releases, you’ve got another thing coming. Stop by the bodega sometime and lets go down the rabbit hole. I’d still like to host you for a curated local tasting sometime. This region gets short shrift too often and it’s bs. I appreciate the note, though. We’ve worked hard on our winemaking and our portfolio… more great things to come.
Finishing the bottle I started Sunday night. Maybe a little softer and smoother than day 1 but holding up great and honestly still sharp and mineraly.
Food at http://www.homesoquel.com/ was focussed on farm to plate cuisine. Chef shops at 4 local farmers markets in Santa Cruz. Menu changes daily. Food style is cali twist on home style cuisine. Yes they have bone marrow and some other interesting choices but they offer pizza and pasta too.
Apps:
Roaster cauliflower with currants, pinenuts, herbs , and I forget the rest that was absolutely savory and delicate.
Some chiles fried in bacon.
Entrees:
They had organic hierloom tomato bolognese over linguini. Stunning example of simple home dish with impeccable ingredients and preparation.
And a pizza with their homemade charcuterie, herbs and moz. (Yum Pork)
Dinner above plus apple cobbler, 3 glasses of wine and 1 cider was $106.
Food was super well thought out and well presented but not trying to win any presentation contests. The dishes let the ingredients shine through. Wife and I both enjoyed it. Our server Caesar was awesome and we ended up chatting about the bretty dry cider I had for desert. He was certainly passionate and knowlegdable about his wine. I’m not exactly sure why brett in beer or cider is a thing these days around Santa Cruz but it is.
Everything was scratch made. They even have their aging charcuterie hanging on display in the wine cellar with some Montebello and Dom. Wine list is very local focused. Ians wine was not on the list and that should be rectified ASAP. Their beer, wine and cider list is super local producer focused and they have some great selections from a variety of SCMN and Cali producers. The Dom in the wine case may be the only imported Bottle of wine I saw.
I noticed that your picture of the wine mentioned was the 2015, but the note is for the 2016, correct? And I think the 2016 is imly about 45% Mourvedre - but im sure delicious as heck!
Larry,
Our best iterations of rose have been between 50-60% mourvedre, with the balance being grenache and cinsault. Up the grenache percentage too much and it because too simple, up the mourvedre too much and it gets excessively weighty and brooding. The cinsault under 20% adds, over 20% it detracts – more or less, every vintage and site is a little different but those are the basic rules we’ve operated under. We’ve struggled with Mourvedre yields since the drought really affected our main source block and it’s not looking strong, and mourvedre is very rare locally, so we grafted another 3 acres at various parcels and we should be well stocked for the future. We just harvested a short two tons off the second year grafts on one vineyard. It is exceeding expectations for quality.
Ian
Love the feedback and information, my friend. As you probably know, I do 100% mourvedre and don’t find it to brooding personally. But it really comes down to the style of wine you want to make. I really enjoyed yours in the past and hope to pick up a bottle of your current one soon. Cheers!
Also comes down to your vineyards. Ours sources are heavily calcareous and very rocky meaning the fruit is small, intense and phenolic. In sand or loam, for instance, it’s a different beast.
