Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2016

  • 91 James
    Suckling
4.1 Very Good (10)
2022 Vintage In Stock
14 99
OFFER Take $20 off your order of $100+
Ships Tomorrow
You purchased this 12/29/23
1
Limit Reached
You purchased this 12/29/23
Alert me about new vintages and availability
Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2016  Front Bottle Shot
Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2016  Front Bottle Shot Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2016  Front Label

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2016

Size
750ML

ABV
13.5%

Features
Screw Cap

Your Rating

0.0 Not For Me NaN/NaN/N

Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

The ’16 Vin Gris is a bit of a departure from recent vintages, somewhat deeper in color and definitely a bit fruitier than some, though the fruit is perhaps (at least at this stage) more of the dark and brooding variety, particularly suggestive of black currants, Damson plum and rosehips. In our modern world, one must never, ever, ever, make anything like a health claim for an alcoholic beverage. (Though it does smell an awful lot like any of the sundry tisanes (tilleul, eglantine) that will definitely do you some good.) Its perfume is subtle, haunting, not vulgar or tawdry, like some of the louche roses de la nuit. Enfin, this wine is all about elegance and restraint. Rosehips, cassis, fraises de bois, citrus rind, with a wonderfully austere stony finish.

This wine just begs for oysters or stone crab.

Blend: 49% Grenache, 19% Grenache Blanc, 13% Mourvedre, 12% Carignane, 4% Cinsaut, 3% Roussanne

Professional Ratings

  • 91
    A fresh and beautiful grenache with strawberry, cherry blossom, lemon and cream character. Medium body. A clean and bright finish. A blend of grenache, grenache blanc, mourvèdre, carignan, cinsault and rousanne. From biodynamically-grown grapes.

Other Vintages

2021
  • 91 Wilfred
    Wong
2020
  • 92 Wine
    Enthusiast
  • 91 Wilfred
    Wong
  • 89 Tasting
    Panel
2019
  • 92 Wine
    Enthusiast
  • 92 Wilfred
    Wong
2018
  • 92 Wilfred
    Wong
  • 90 Tasting
    Panel
2017
  • 91 Tasting
    Panel
  • 90 Wine &
    Spirits
2011
  • 89 Wine
    Spectator
2010
  • 90 Robert
    Parker
2005
  • 90 Wine
    Enthusiast
2004
  • 90 Wine
    Enthusiast
2002
  • 89 Wine
    Enthusiast
1998
  • 87 Wine
    Spectator
Bonny Doon

Bonny Doon

View all products
Bonny Doon, California
Bonny Doon Popelouchum Vineyard Winery Image

While Bonny Doon Vineyard began with the (in retrospect) foolish attempt to replicate Burgundy in California, Randall Grahm realized early on that he would have far more success creating more distinctive and original wines working with Rhône varieties in the Central Coast of California. The key learning here (achieved somewhat accidentally but fortuitously) was that in a warm, Mediterranean climate, it is usually blended wines that are most successful. In 1986 Bonny Doon Vineyard released the inaugural vintage (1984) of Le Cigare Volant, an homage to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and this continues as the winery’s flagship/starship brand.

Since then, Bonny Doon Vineyard has enjoyed a long history of innovation – the first to truly popularize Rhône grapes in California, to successfully work with cryo-extraction for sundry “Vins de Glacière, the first to utilize microbullage in California, the first to popularize screwcaps for premium wines, and, quite significantly, the first to embrace true transparency in labeling with its ingredient labeling initiative. The upside of all of this activity has brought an extraordinary amount of creativity and research to the California wine scene; the doon-side, as it were, was perhaps an ever so slight inability to focus, to settle doon, if you will, into a single, coherent direction.1

Bonny Doon Vineyard grew and grew with some incredibly popular brands (Big House, Cardinal Zin and Pacific Rim) until it became the 28th largest winery in the United States. Randall came to the realization – better late than Nevers – that he had found that the company had diverged to a great extent from his original intention of producing soulful, distinctive and original wines, and that while it was amusing to be able to get restaurant reservations almost anywhere (the only real tangible perk he was able to discern from the vast scale of the operation), it was time to take a decisive course correction. With this in mind, he sold off the larger brands (Big House and Cardinal Zin) in 2006 and Pacific Rim in 2010.

In the intervening years, the focus of the winery has been to spend far more time working with vineyards in improving their practices, as well as on making wines with a much lighter touch – using indigenous yeast whenever possible, and more or less eschewing vinous maquillage, (at least not to Tammy Faye Bakker-like levels). Recently, Randall has purchased an extraordinary property in San Juan Bautista, which he calls Popelouchum, (the Mutsun word for “paradise,”) where he is profoundly intent on producing singular wines expressive of place. There are also very grand plans afoot to plant a dry-farmed Estate Cigare vineyard.

Image for Rosé Wine content section
View all products

Whether it’s playful and fun or savory and serious, most rosé today is not your grandmother’s White Zinfandel, though that category remains strong. Pink wine has recently become quite trendy, and this time around it’s commonly quite dry. Since the pigment in red wines comes from keeping fermenting juice in contact with the grape skins for an extended period, it follows that a pink wine can be made using just a brief period of skin contact—usually just a couple of days. The resulting color depends on grape variety and winemaking style, ranging from pale salmon to deep magenta.

Image for Central Coast Wine California content section
View all products

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.

CHMBND2001016_2016 Item# 167845

Internet Explorer is no longer supported.
Please use a different browser like Edge, Chrome or Firefox to enjoy all that Wine.com has to offer.

It's easy to make the switch.
Enjoy better browsing and increased security.

Yes, Update Now

Search for ""