Wine Spotlight: Bonny Doon Vineyard 2014 Vin Gris de Cigare
Bonny Doon Vineyard is one of the most exciting wineries along California’s Central Coast appellation. Bonny Doon's estate vineyard is a 280-acre property located in San Juan Bautista, and they have administrative offices and a wine cellar in Santa Cruz, as well as a tasting room on Highway 1 in Davenport.
Randall Graham, the vineyard’s owner and founder, is one of the most eccentric personalities alive today in the wine industry. Known for his quirky lables, biodynamic growing practices, and emphasis on terroir, Graham is perhaps enology's most dedicated student. Graham was one of the first winemakers to successfully grow Rhone varietals in California, as well as one of the first to make the switch from corks to screw caps (2001). To this day, Randall Graham is one of the only winemakers who lists all of the ingredients contained in each bottle. This practice is used in an effort to encourage transparency in the industry and a movement away from heavy mechanical and chemical intervention.
Graham's newest scientific venture is the quest to create 10,000 new grape varietals that are perfectly suited for specific terroirs and resistant to harmful diseases. This would allow what Graham believes to be the most important purpose of wine, instilling a sense of place within its drinkers (terroir), to become a reality for more winemakers today. Terroir-specific grapes would be less expensive to grow by requiring less intervention from man and machines. Truly "acoustic," or natural wines could finally be produced without worry of high costs and risk of failure.
Bonny Doon Vineyard’s 2014 “Vin Gris de Cigare” ($14) is, according to the label, “the pink analogue of Le Cigare Volant,” their flagship wine named after the cigar-shaped UFO banned from landing in Chateauneuf-du-Pape’s vineyards in 1954. The label artwork features a "cigare" UFO shooting a rose-colored tractor beam down onto an unsuspecting winemaker and his field of grapes below.
“Vin Gris de Cigare” has a provactive Southern French cepages; this “pink wine of the earth” is 35% grenache, 18% mourvedre, 16% grenache blanc, 12.5% roussanne, 8% carignane, 8% cinsault, 1.5% marsanne, and 1% counoise. The result of this cepage is a wine that is the palest of pinks in the glass.
On the nose this wine is elegant and subtle. I detect fresh strawberries, and upon warming, a minty note. On the palate this wine hits all my pleasure points: it’s light and crisp with waves of strawberry, raspberry, and stone fruits that roll around my tongue. Simultaneously, this wine has a distinct creaminess and richness, resulting in the stone fruits lingering and finishing with a bright, refreshing acidity. This creamy texture is the result of the traditional practice of batonnage, the stirring of the lees post-fermentation.
What happens #NationalOysterDay falls on a #WineWednesday ? pic.twitter.com/CXzkJyo9vj
— Bonny Doon Vineyard (@BonnyDoonVineyd)
August 5, 2015
This vin gris is the best possible wine for a hot summer day. With dinner, it will amaze you at how well it pairs with food, especially oysters and anything from the sea. It’s crisp acidity, creamy texture, and long lingering stone fruit finish make it virtually any summer entre’s best friend. Have some friends over, shuck some oysters, grill up some seafood, and pull out a few chilled bottles of this true vin gris, Bonny Doon’s most food-friendly wine yet. You just may transform some white and pink wine skeptics into superfans of this homerun “pink wine of the earth.”
You can find Bonny Doon Vineyard's 2014 "Vin Gris de Cigare" at Rosemont Market on Brighton Avenue in Portland. This wine can also be special-ordered through RSVP Liquors, or Maine & Loire on Washington Avenue.