Wine is often referred to in reverential terms, as a refined form of art. And varietals will challenge a winemaker from season to season as they bow to the whims of nature.
Blends, however, are as much dogged planning as creative outburst — at least to hear Gregory Graham tell it.
“I learned you have to have a direction in mind,” he said. “If you don”t, it”s like watercolors. It ends up all brown and muddy.”
Graham is known for the dozen or so single varietals he produces from his vineyards near Lower Lake, in the Red Hills AVA (American Viticultural Area). But in 2008 he decided to play around with some Syrah.
“The idea was to blend Syrah and Malbec, but I also wanted some herbaceousness in it,” Graham recalled.
So he added a little Cabernet. After another sample, he worked in some Grenache, just to develop the fruity aspects. When he was finished, the Cinder Cone Reserve included a touch of Petite Sirah, as well.
The concept might be illegal in the staid world of French wine. After all, it involves both Rhone and Bordeaux varietals and crossing the lines of terroir is a non-non. But the execution of it worked so well, Graham”s 2010 Cinder Cone earned the title of Best Red Wine from the Lake County People”s Choice Awards.
Clearly the French have it all wrong.
Graham”s blend plumbs the depths of flavors slipping past the peak of ripeness, turning it into a kind of joyride, a plummeting bittersweet adventure.
Soft pepper is the first impression on the nose, followed by aromas of thorny brush in fall, peaking through a mass of dark fruit and pomace. On the palate it is even richer: dark forest berries, bitter chocolate, charred wood, drying leaves and more — the essence of fall, with the tailings of summer and the sting of a coming chill, all in one glass.
“I worked on it for several months,” Graham said with nonchalance. “It came out nice.”
The 2010 was Gregory Graham Wines third Cinder Cone vintage. In that time, Graham has also lived by another lesson blends will teach otherwise unwary vintners.
“You keep working on it,” he said, “but you have to have a reference.”
In other words, once satisfied with that first Cinder Cone in 2008, the next vintage had to show the same characteristics, even as the winemaker refined its profile every so slightly — easing the wine around a curve rather than yanking it sharply into a corner.
Graham limits the production of Cinder Cone to 500 cases a year. He ferments in batches and selects from both French and American oak for aging.
Dave Faries can be reached at 900-2016
