Been There, Doon That

[Oswaldo Costa]

Some time ago I read most of Randall Grahm's Been Doon So Long, a "vinthology" of pun-infested, sometimes brilliant, often hysterical, always OTT musings. Grahm describes his tortuous journey in the direction of what I would call wines suitable for the disorderly palate*, so, over the months I picked up a sample to test drive. One thing I found remarkable is how each label lists the ingredients (including tartaric acid and, in one case, oak chips) as well as total and free SO2 at time of bottling. In all cases, yeast nutrients were fed to the indigenous yeasts (since you are what you eat, I wonder how much that deviates from naturalness) and bentonite (a fining agent named after Thomas Hart Benton) was also used. Remarkable disclosure practice that should be emulated by sundry, perhaps even by all.

2009 Bonny Doon Vineyard Ca' del Solo Estate Albariño 12.8% (Demeter Certified)
Screw cap. 65 ppm total, 20 ppm free at bottling. Nice grapefruit aroma, becomes increasingly floral with warmth. Decent acidity, but the grapefruit promised more. Sweetness a bit candied. Score: no cigare.

2009 Bonny Doon Vineyard Vin Gris de Cigare 13.4% (Demeter Certified)
Screw cap. Rosé made from 83% Grenache, 10 Grenache Blanc, 5% Roussanne, 2% Cinsault, plus tartaric acid and SO2. Uses French oak barrels, 60 ppm total SO2, 25 ppm free SO2 at bottling. Muted nose, light citrus. Good acidity, pleasantly bitter finish. Sweetness also a bit candied, but less than the Albariño. No sign of the acidulation. Humbling. Does well with salmon and reaches a very decent cruising altitude of pleasure. Score: some cigare.

2006 Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Cigare Volant 13.3%
Screw cap. CdP style blend of 43.6% Syrah, 43.5% Grenache, 11.7% Cinsault, 1.1% Mourvèdre, and 0.1% (sic) Carignane. 70 ppm total SO2, 25 ppm free SO2 at bottling. Label lists ingredients as "grapes, tartaric acid, SO2, pectinase, tannin" and the process is said to include "indigenous yeasts, untoasted oak chips, French oak barrels, yeast nutrients, cultured yeast, malolactic cultures, and copper sulfate." Amazing, for once I supposedly know what I am drinking. Despite the spoof, lovely bright cherry, leather and sandalwood aromas, with very light oak. Mild tannins, good acidity and balance, pleasant astringency, very light and pleasant wood flavor, not overly extracted or ripe. Infinitesimally jammy, but entirely civilized. One of the best Rhone clones I have tasted - more pleasurable, in fact, than most Rhones - and a paean to the charms of fully disclosed artifice. Score: cigare.

* Those who cynically doubt the existence of the One True Palate are generally in a state of arrested development with a lingering need for individuation. They may ask "If there is such a thing as the OTP, how come its holders occasionally disagree?" Simple! Because different people have differing aptitudes for introjecting the OTP.

 

[Ian Fitzsimmons]

Sometimes a cigare is just a cigare.

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

Maybe the Cigare Volant was a nice wine. But a wine with 43% Syrah to 43% Grenache treated in oak sounds more like Barroche Fiance than any normal CdP blend.

 

[Oswaldo Costa]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Maybe the Cigare Volant was a nice wine. But a wine with 43% Syrah to 43% Grenache treated in oak sounds more like Barroche Fiance than any normal CdP blend.

Label says, rather obliquely (and, to me, incoherently): "Le Cigare Volant is our rendition of a complex, blended Southern French red, Cigares, the flying variants thereof, are prohibited from landing in the protected vineyards of Ch“teauneuf-du-Pape by decree of that village council in 1954. The composition of our Flying Cigar is based on the traditional encépagement of its Gallic analogue."

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Maybe the Cigare Volant was a nice wine. But a wine with 43% Syrah to 43% Grenache treated in oak sounds more like Barroche Fiance than any normal CdP blend.

Label says, rather obliquely (and, to me, incoherently): "Le Cigare Volant is our rendition of a complex, blended Southern French red, Cigares, the flying variants thereof, are prohibited from landing in the protected vineyards of Ch“teauneuf-du-Pape by decree of that village council in 1954. The composition of our Flying Cigar is based on the traditional encépagement of its Gallic analogue."

Yes, both the title and the label claim the wine to be modeled on CdP. I just think this cepage mixture demands that that claim be taken at least somewhat loosely. He may be admitting this in calling it a rendition of a "blended Southern French red" since those percentages might easily be found in, say, Vacqueyras. And he does have a wine--or did have--that he calls Old Telegram,which is more clearly modeled after a specific CdP.

 

[SFJoe]

It is very brave of him to give the ingredients.

Angiolino Maule has started to put the Italian government analysis of his wines on his labels--including potentially embarrassing things like va.

Grahm is hilarious, but I regret that his writing has given me more pleasure than his wines over the years, with a few notable exceptions (his last estate syrah, for instance). Glad to hear of the Cigare, I will keep an eye open for one.