Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
There's a “wow” factor on the nose of this bottling of old vine Grenache, with fresh red cherry, cola, light licorice, rusty earth, rosewater and carnation all coming to the fore. The palate is loaded with wet gravel and river-stone minerality, which is decorated with red plum and pomegranate flavors. Overall light and easy yet complex and unique.
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Wine & Spirits
The warmth of the 2016 vintage is on display in this wine’s heady scents and mildly briny sourness. The ripe black-cherry fruit is reined in by an almost clay-like grip of tannins, fine and elegant, for something with a bit of savor, like goat.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
The largest and perhaps most varied of California’s wine-growing regions, the Central Coast produces a good majority of the state's wine. This vast California wine district stretches from San Francisco all the way to Santa Barbara along the coast, and reaches inland nearly all the way to the Central Valley.
Encompassing an extremely diverse array of climates, soil types and wine styles, it contains many smaller sub-AVAs, including San Francisco Bay, Monterey, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Paso Robles, Edna Valley, Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley.
While the Central Coast California wine region could probably support almost any major grape varietiy, it is famous for a few Central Coast reds and whites. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are among the major ones. The Central Coast is home to many of the state's small, artisanal wineries crafting unique, high-quality wines, as well as larger producers also making exceptional wines.