Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
I'm not buying any -- it's mostly grenache -- but it is a significant anniversary for a famous bottling so here is Randall Grahm's note:
November 7, 2024
My colleagues at Bonny Doon have asked me to pen a few words on the occasion of the release of the 40th (!!!) vintage of Le Cigare Volant. (And an utterly fabulous vintage it is.) The wine is now available to order.
For someone like myself whose spirit lives somewhat randomly throughout the space-time continuum, this is a perfect occasion to reflect upon the inception of Cigare Volant, as I have doon on certainly more than one occasion. I am sure I’ve repeated ad vinum nauseum the somewhat contingent nature of the birth of Cigare.
Short version: Not too long after I had begun, dreams of the Great American Pinot Noir shattered when the grapes I was growing proved to be lackluster at best. Still cherishing the hope of remaining in the wine biz, fortuitously I met with Kermit (the Wine Merchant, not the Frog), who suggested I take a look at the possibilities of Rhône varieties in California. David Bruce, whom I regard as the Nostradamus of the Central Coast, had been prescient enough to attempt to produce red Grenache in 1971 and 72 from the Carter Ranch on Hecker Pass near Gilroy and I was lucky enough to espy a bottle of each at Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa some 13 years later. Alas, the Carter vineyard had unfortunately been pulled out when I spoke to David in 1984 but I started prospecting in the neighborhood for other Grenache plantings and was fortunate enough to have found two others Besson and then Bertero, which became the mainstays of Cigare for the next decade. Remember, I was not a particularly experienced or confident winemaker back then and the only thing I really knew was that if I wanted to make a successful homage to say, a Ch“teauneuf-du-Pape, I should probably stick closely to the generally accepted formula for making such a wine, which is to say: Make it mostly from Grenache. Make sure the Grenache is properly ripe (24.-25 Brix). Eschew new and small cooperage. Don’t move (rack) the wine too much. Have a few other blending components on hand (Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault) as a sort of spice rack. Here is where Fate steps in. Based on everything I’ve seen and come to learn in subsequent years, it was really somewhat miraculous that the inaugural vintage (1984) of Cigare came out as well as it did. The first vintage was absolutely lovely - minty and elegant and the second vintage, 1985, was a little bit richer in body, darker in color and smelled like raspberry jam. When I started out in the business I had no idea whatsoever that imagining and talking about wine could be so much fun, especially if you had a magical starship on hand to transport you to the outer limits of your imagination. Le Cigare Volant has been such a vehicle for me. For the record, I have not had a close encounter with aliens but there is every chance they have been beaming me with some singular brain-waves.
November 7, 2024
My colleagues at Bonny Doon have asked me to pen a few words on the occasion of the release of the 40th (!!!) vintage of Le Cigare Volant. (And an utterly fabulous vintage it is.) The wine is now available to order.
For someone like myself whose spirit lives somewhat randomly throughout the space-time continuum, this is a perfect occasion to reflect upon the inception of Cigare Volant, as I have doon on certainly more than one occasion. I am sure I’ve repeated ad vinum nauseum the somewhat contingent nature of the birth of Cigare.
Short version: Not too long after I had begun, dreams of the Great American Pinot Noir shattered when the grapes I was growing proved to be lackluster at best. Still cherishing the hope of remaining in the wine biz, fortuitously I met with Kermit (the Wine Merchant, not the Frog), who suggested I take a look at the possibilities of Rhône varieties in California. David Bruce, whom I regard as the Nostradamus of the Central Coast, had been prescient enough to attempt to produce red Grenache in 1971 and 72 from the Carter Ranch on Hecker Pass near Gilroy and I was lucky enough to espy a bottle of each at Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa some 13 years later. Alas, the Carter vineyard had unfortunately been pulled out when I spoke to David in 1984 but I started prospecting in the neighborhood for other Grenache plantings and was fortunate enough to have found two others Besson and then Bertero, which became the mainstays of Cigare for the next decade. Remember, I was not a particularly experienced or confident winemaker back then and the only thing I really knew was that if I wanted to make a successful homage to say, a Ch“teauneuf-du-Pape, I should probably stick closely to the generally accepted formula for making such a wine, which is to say: Make it mostly from Grenache. Make sure the Grenache is properly ripe (24.-25 Brix). Eschew new and small cooperage. Don’t move (rack) the wine too much. Have a few other blending components on hand (Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault) as a sort of spice rack. Here is where Fate steps in. Based on everything I’ve seen and come to learn in subsequent years, it was really somewhat miraculous that the inaugural vintage (1984) of Cigare came out as well as it did. The first vintage was absolutely lovely - minty and elegant and the second vintage, 1985, was a little bit richer in body, darker in color and smelled like raspberry jam. When I started out in the business I had no idea whatsoever that imagining and talking about wine could be so much fun, especially if you had a magical starship on hand to transport you to the outer limits of your imagination. Le Cigare Volant has been such a vehicle for me. For the record, I have not had a close encounter with aliens but there is every chance they have been beaming me with some singular brain-waves.