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I have written in various places about the inspiration to age
wine in demijohns/carboys/bonbonnes. Some of it has come
from my fascination with oxidation/reduction chemistry, an aspect
of wine art/science not well understood and its importance greatly
unappreciated. Years ago, as a young pup I tasted wine from carboy
with Dan Wheeler of Nicasio Cellars in his do-it-yourself-handdug
cave in Soquel, and was astonished at how youthful were the wines,
twenty plus years later, almost as if they had been placed in
suspended animation. At about the same time, I also happened to
taste the wines from Emidio Pepe in Abruzzo, who also aged his
product in demijohns, likewise evincing extraordinary youthfulness
and vitality.
We did some small encouraging experiments years ago, then more or
less forgot about them until relatively recently, at which point we
began the carboy ageing project with red Cigare. It wasn’t until
’09 that it dooned on me that perhaps there were even more
interesting things to discover with the white. The ’10 Cigare Blanc
Réserve, our second vintage of this wine, is absolutely amazing, an
advance over the ’09. To refresh everyone’s memory, this wine is
more or less the same blend as our standard issue Cigare Blanc,
apart from the fact that we’ve allowed it to undergo malolactic
fermentation, and at that point, we gave it a light SO2 addition,
racked it to glass demijohn (bonbonne), where it reposed for
a year and a half, getting anaerobically stirred more or less
fortnightly.
The wine derives entirely from the Beeswax Vineyard, located at the
mouth of the Arroyo Seco, and is farmed biodynamically and produced
according to biodynamic specifications (very easy on the extraneous
additions).
I’ve had the pleasure of tasting this wine over the last year, and
what is most remarkable about it is that every time I taste it, it
gets younger and younger! The wine was not filtered, and therefore
is partly cloudy, though lately, it is curiously, getting brighter
and brighter. The wine has a rich, unctuous texture, despite its
modest (12ish%) alcohol, as well as possesses the most satisfying
savoriness. In the nose, there is a wonderful suggestion of
hazelnuts (hmm, white Burgundy, anyone?), as well as a beautiful
fragrance of wintergreen and a wine-like pear. A great gastronomy
wine, one that will perfectly suit rich, cream-based dishes.
Vital Statistics:
Blend: 56% roussanne, 44% grenache blanc (Certified
Biodynamic®)
Vineyard: Beeswax (Certified Biodynamic®)
Appellation: Arroyo Seco
Serving Temp: 50-55ºF
Alcohol by Volume: 12.4%
TA: 6.2 g/L
pH: 3.62
Optimal drinkability: Drink now-2020
Production: 497 cases
