Winemaker Notes
This is our seventh vintage of Picpoul from the Beeswax vineyard, and very confidently I’d suggest that it is one of our best efforts to date. Picpoul or “lip-stinger” is known, of course, for its tingling acidity, but coupled with its singular savoriness, it creates a dramatic sensation on the palate. (The ’18 is perhaps a little bit softer than vendanges d’antan.) I know that it’s impossible to smell the sensation of saltiness, but the nose of our Picpoul is maritime, coupled with a discreet suggestion of peaches, wildflowers and the (we really can’t help it, but it’s in there) ubiquitous fragrance of beeswax. The ’18 seems to possess a unique suggestion of spearmint, which is a fragrance that seems to pop up every now and then in other varieties grown at Beeswax Vineyard. This wine is utterly brilliant with the briniest oysters you can find or with Dungeness crab.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2018 Bonny Doon Vineyard Picpoul is a serious wine that is fun to imbibe. TASTING NOTES: This wine is clean, fresh, and crisp. Its penetrating aromas and flavors of tart citrus and frisky minerality should pair nicely with seared scallops on a bed of al dente pasta. (Tasted: May 23, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Tasting Panel
Aromatic and exotic, with apple dominating the nose; crisp and dry with a backdrop of mineral and spice. This obscure variety has suddenly become trendy, with good reason.
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Wine Enthusiast
Light aromas of Pink Lady apples, ripe limes and chilled river water show on the nose of this bottling of the increasingly popular white Rhône grape. It's very textural on the palate, where grippy flavors of lemon pith and sour apple reign.
Picpoul remains one of the few wines in France named for the grape more than the place; Picpoul de Pinet refers to the white wines made exclusively from the grape called Piquepoul Blanc in the Languedoc communes of Pinet, Mèze, Florensac, Castelnau-de-Guers, Montagnac and Pomérols. Confusingly, the spelling, Piquepoul, can be used for the variety in all other appellations except for those named above. The grape is ubiquitous throughout the Languedoc. Somm Secret—Pomérols is a commune in the Languedoc-Rousillon region in the south of France and has nothing to do with the Bordeaux village of virtually the same name, Pomerol.
Named after the dramatic, seasonal river of rain and snowmelt that cuts through the upper elevations of the Santa Lucia Mountains, the Arroyo Seco AVA extends east from the resultant mountain gorge, and into the rural and warm Salinas Valley. During the growing season, cool and damp Pacific Ocean air penetrates the gorge and flows into the valley, creating a cool evening respite for vineyards after a hot summer day. This natural water-release has also created a subterranean aquifer, which helps set the foundation of the AVA's boundaries and supplies the vineyards with water.
Arroyo Seco was actually home to the first commercial vineyard in California, called Mission Ranch, which was owned and propogated by the Mirassou family in the 1960s.
Chardonnay is most widely grown here. But as one of Monterey’s warmer regions, Arroyo Seco enjoys the highest praise for its reds, namely Bordeaux blends.
Arroyo Seco is one of the oldest AVAs in California, its status granted in the early 1980s, and also remains one of its smallest.