I like Portuguese wine.

I like Randall Grahm.

So it’s no surprise that I like this wine. I don’t love it, not yet, but there’s so much to like about it, I’m still pretty excited.

By now, chances are you know the tale. Maybe you’ve even heard me tell it. The tale of the Rhône Ranger, Randall Grahm, who twenty-some odd years ago starting really going to town growing Rhône varieties in California, which had been dominated by the noble species of Bordeaux and Burgundy to that point.

But now, everybody’s growing grenache and syrah. OK, maybe not everybody, but still, the two grapes—especially syrah—are incredibly easy to find in California wine now. Randall doesn’t seem the type to do much laurels-resting, so where’s he headed next?

Portugal.

I don’t know of anyone in California—and please, please correct me if I’m wrong—making wine that is over 50% loureiro. Besides Bonny Doon, that is.

At 56% loureiro and 44% alvarinho (I use albariño’s Portuguese spelling here for obvious reasons), Bonny Doon’s Vinho Grinho (VEEN-yo GREEN-yo) is California’s first attempt¹ at Portugal’s venerable Vinho Verde white wine. The grapes hail from BD’s Ca’ del Solo estate vineyards in Monterey County.

And it’s pretty damn good. It will kind of depend on what you’re looking for in a white, of course, but this was something I enjoyed, and my wife actually kind of raved about.

The wine is almost clear, light yellow in the glass. Kind of sauv blancish if you’ve never seen a Vinho Verde before, and kind of Vinho Verdesque if you have. The nose features pine and green herbs, but not heavy, very light in the air.

The wine is actually a bit fuller-bodied than I expected, but I would still characterize it as “light-to-medium” bodied. Minty herbs that reflect the aromas on the nose are greeted by a pleasant green apple note on the palate. The wine is not particularly acidic, and finishes pretty short, but it’s not meant to be big or bombastic.

I hope this is an example of things to come for California winemaking, just as Randall’s adoption of the south of France was in the 1980s. The world could use more wine from Portuguese grapes.

Verdict: B

2009 Bonny Doon Vinho Grinho

Footnotes

1. again, that I know of

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I love it when winemakers get creative.

Over two decades ago, Bonny Doon Vineyards’ Randall Grahm earned the nickname “The Rhône Ranger” by embracing the southern Rhône varieties for production in California, among them grenache, syrah, marsanne, and viognier.

He could have made chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, and merlot. He probably would have done alright with it. Instead he bucked the trend.

And now? Now that grenache and syrah (especially) are growing all over California? What trend is he bucking now?

Well, my wife and I, and our families, drink a fair amount of sparkling wine. And 99% of it is made from some combination of chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier—the traditional grapes of Champagne. There’s a good reason for using these grapes, and it’s not just tradition. They work excellently in the style.

This wine, however, is a méthode champenoise (i.e., traditionally-crafted sparkling wine) made from 100% riesling.

I’d never had anything like it.

In the glass it truly sparkles, a very light color (more like a blanc de blancs than a blanc de noirs) with small, fast bubbles. On the nose is an unmistakable scent to me: aged gouda. The good kind, with those little crystallized something-or-others throughout the cheese. Know what I’m talking about? Dry, aged, gouda. Some sourdough on the nose too.

More of the same on the palate, the wine tastes like a wonderful combination of bread and cheese. A little yeasty, a bit sour, just a little nutty. It’s delightfully effervescent, with a light, crisp mouthfeel.

Back in the mid-80s, Randall Grahm convinced a winedrinking world that Rhône varieties could not only survive, but thrive in California. And in the summer of 2010, when he poured me a glass of the “Riesling to Live,” he convinced me that sparkling wine can be made from this noble German grape.

And well, at that.

Verdict: B+

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I do love being surprised by wine.

Sometimes, the surprise comes in the form of some new aroma, flavor or texture I’ve yet to come across. Other times, I get surprised to discover an area of the world that I did not take to be a wine growing region makes some truly righteous juice.

And still other times, I have my preconceived notions about price and quality utterly shattered. Just stomped. That, perhaps, is the most fun, because I get to share that surprise with you, and there’s a better chance you can end up sharing in it.

The 2008 TRÉ Chardonnay is 100% Monterey County chard. It should be available for $9.95 at your local store (your mileage will vary on that note, of course). And, frankly, it’s pretty damn good chardonnay.

The wine is a bright lemon yellow in the glass. I originally wanted to call it “straw” but that didn’t seem right. My wife suggested I hold up a lemon next to the glass, and voilà, that was exactly the color. The nose is primarily made up of an apple note, along with some grass and minerality that seemed almost sauvignon blanc-ish, but there is still something on the nose that leaves you no doubt this is chardonnay.

The wine is medium bodied, and something in here bites back ever so slightly (though, “heat” isn’t the right word—this wine clocks in at 12.5% ABV and feels like it). In general, the wine is clean and crisp on the palate. Notes of lemon zest and green apple mingle with a subtle, pleasant oaky roundness. The wine is in no way over-oaked, but it has touched wood and been bettered by it.

All in all, my expectations were admittedly a bit low when I popped the cork on the TRÉ Chardonnay, but I was pleasantly surprised over and over again. Easily recommended, especially when you consider the sub-$10 price point.

Verdict: B

(Full disclosure: I was sent this bottle as a press sample from Folsom & Associates)

2008 TRE Chardonnay

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