2021 Grenache

We use most of our Grenache in our Esprit de Tablas and Côtes de Tablas blends each year. However, we feel that this is a grape whose bright fruit, spice and acidity lends itself well to bottling as a single-varietal wine as well. Grenache seems to improve more dramatically with vine age than any other grape we grow, and although we didn't produce our first single-varietal Grenache bottling until 2006, we have made one most years since.

The grapes for our 2021 Grenache were grown on our Regenerative Organic Certified™ and biodynamic estate vineyard.

The 2021 vintage came after a chilly, relatively dry winter, the exception being a single storm that dropped more than a foot of rain on us in late January. The cold, dry winter produced a fruit set with smaller clusters and smaller berries, and yields were down about 25% compared to our average. The growing season was ideal, with each hot stretch followed by a cool period that allowed the vines to recover, and that combined with the low yields to produce some of our most intense fruit ever and our highest average acids since the chilly 2011 vintage. We believe that 2021 has all the hallmarks of a blockbuster year.

For our varietal bottling we as usual chose lots that emphasized Grenache's freshness and avoided riper lots that tend toward higher alcohols. The lots were blended in June 2022 and aged in neutral 1200-gallon oak foudres until bottling in Feb 2023.