Episode 14 - Bonny Doon Vineyard
November 20th, 2005
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The Bonny Doon Vineyard (www.bonnydoonvineyard.com) - is about 36.5 miles from central San Jose. Allow at least 50 minutes to get there. The salient and recurring winemaking themes at Bonny Doon/Ca’ del Solo are:
1) having as much fun with the enterprise of winemaking as the relevant governmental agencies will allow;
2) producing wine and wine labels that will scintillate the most jaded imbiber;
3) retaining as much of the natural qualities of the grapes (especially fragrance) through minimal cellar treatment including eschewing limpidity for its own sake and relying on gravity to render matters perfectly clear;
4) paying particularly close attention to the old chestnut that wine is produced in the vineyard.
They try to enact the appropriate cultural practices that will lead to the fullest expression of terroir and variety.
0:00 Intro
2:32 History & Background
10:47 2004 Clos de Gilroy
14:12 2002 Le Cigare Volant
18:12 Screwtops discussion
19:45 2002 Aglianco
23:35 2003 Cardinal Zin
28:15 Angelica
30:00 Winery Description
31:55 Bouteille Call
34:05 Wrap-up
35:23 Follow Your Own Nose
The wines that we sample are:
2004 Clos de Gilroy, $ 12.50
Winemakers Notes: This itineration of C de G incorporates Grenache from such far flung piquant outposts as Greenfiled, which supplements the old vine fruit from the Hecker Pass growing area, close - ahem - to Gilroy. The wildly fruity, peppery, strawberry-rhubarbarity Grenache is the perfect foil for anything al fresco, especially when anointed with olive oil.
Guy & Girl Notes: This wine has a very unique nose. Fruity, peppery, even an earthy nose to it. Lori liked it and Joe - while not his favorite - thought it was one of the most unique wines we have tasted, quite sweet. This is a great wine for Thanksgiving - the Money magazine best buy!
2002 Le Cigare Volant, $32.00
Winemakers Notes: This wine consists of 39% Grenache, 32% Mourvedre, 28% Syrah and 1% Viognier. The 2002 vintage is a larger, beefier number than usual, though it is hardly a juiced-up, mesomorphic golem conjured up in a top secret, “Oys Only” sector of the cellar. The high percentages of mourvedre and syrah endow the wine with an evocative smoky, meaty peppery core on which to rest its somewhat rotund boo-tay. It may be a bit much to ask a wine blended of grapes from numerous vineyards to express terroir, but there is an undeniable stony note contributing a metadimension of flavor. This wide spectrum of flavors topped off by licorice, blackberry and an electric bolt of black currant.
Guy & Girl Notes: Opens up pretty nicely…currant nose to it. They had a really attractive (cool) over-sized cigar boxes to box up wines in - 6 bottles.
2002 Aglianco (Available only to DEWN Wine Club Members)
Winemakers Notes: Produced by our partners in Puglia, the de Corato family, with whom we also produce the Il Circo Uva di Troia, this wine is another deft example of what southern Italian varieties can achieve with some fastidious viticulture and winemaking. Aglianico, while little known, is one of Italy’s hidden treasures. Sometimes referred to as the Barolo of Southern Italy, its long and rich history actually puts Barolo to shame. Aglianico is thought to be Greek in origin, its name a corruption of the Italian word “Ellenico” meaning “Hellenic” or “Greek.” It has been grown in Southern Italy since well before Rome existed, and certainly before the Piemontese knew much about winemaking. Roughly 3000 years is certainly time enough for a grape to adapt to a new terroir, which likely explains how well the wine suits Pugliese culture and food.
While aglianico can be a fairly tannic and rustic variety—as rough and tumble as the streets of nearby Bari—there are several civilizing influences that can be applied, to very gently even out some of its more hirsute edges. This particular cuvée has benefited greatly from an extended maturation in barrels, which has softened some of the harder phenolics, though not at the expense of the wines rich fruitfulness.
Guy & Girl Notes: A very exquisite nose, slight acidity character, dusty (?), very delicious.
2003 Cardinal Zin, $19.95
Winemakers Notes: “It is a Cardinal Zin to be inordinately proud of this windly spicy, full-bodied paean to little red fruit, the envy of those who try and fail. We anticipate its greddy acquisition by consumers lusting for a complete glutinous, sorry, make that supersonic gastronomic experience. This wine will complement all manner of game and other wild beasts, including sloth.” — R. RAnger (Note, label artwork done by Ralph Steadman, a well known artist and fellow wine lover -
www.ralphsteadman.com)
Guy & Girl Notes: Sweet, without being overbearing. Hints of pepper, very unique.
Angelica, $18.00
Winemakers Notes:Angelica is perhaps the most original of American wines, initially produced by California’s Franciscan missionaries by adding unfermented juice to grape spirits.Similarly, this Angelica was made by adding neutral grape spirits and some fairly fragrant muscat brandy to lightly fermented mission grape juice. The mission grape is believed to have originated in Spain, imported to the Americas by the conquistadores, later becoming the grape of choice in the vineyards of California’s Missions.
After fortification, the wine was aged in open-topped barrels for many years and allowed to cool and warm with the seasons. The wine itself is extravagantly rich and unctuous, no doubt the product of seven plus years of repose and evaporation (and thus concentration) in partially filled barrels. When paired with pecan pie, one might expect tantric inspirations never contemplated by the Franciscans who created this quickly disappearing wine style. Other blessed arrangements would include dates, veined or aged cheeses, and various fruit tarts.
Guy & Girl Notes: Very delicious and sweet. Joe purchased a bottle of this nice little treat to take home, while this wine reminds Lori of her early days of drinking….
Bouteille Call, $16.00
Winemakers Notes: This is not a wine so much as a call to action, an entreaty, an appeal to reacquaint oneself with the pleasures of the sensual world. When the wine is poured, the aromas of raspberry, cassis and licorice fairly billow out of the glass in an almost cartoony, Barbara Eden-like fashion. If you didn’t know already, Bouteille Call is a naughty little beverage.
Guy & Girl Notes: Very jammy, blackberries and raspberry flavors. A great wine for dessert, or perhaps with breakfast?
Our Podsafe Music Network Artist this week the song is “Follow Your Nose” by Slim. You can check the recetnly released album the website, http://www.slim-music.com Audio engineering provided by Tom Krymkowski
Bonny Doon Vineyard can be found at:
10 Pine Flat Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Google Map
tel: 831-425-4518
Tasting Room open daily from 11am- 5pm.
Cheers!
-A Guy & a Girl
guyandgirl@gmail.com
