Gregory Graham listens to his grapes.
Not that he allows them full rein, mind you. He trims his Grenache vines back to one cluster per shoot to encourage them to mash the petal. He siphons off a little of the initial press, forcing greater concentration of flavors.
But he still listens, especially when a varietal is keen to rev up its flavors.
In 2011 the Lower Lake winemaker produced a beautiful Grenache, laden with ripe berries. For the 2012 vintage, Graham realized his grapes wanted a little more fuel.
So he added a measure of Tempranillo — 10 percent — to the wine.
“I think it was beckoning for more,” Graham explained. “That’s why I went with Tempranillo. I wanted to add a little more horsepower to it.”
The result is clearly a Grenache, yet one with some attitude. On the nose it bursts with festive aromas. Juicy raspberry and ripe red cherry carouse over a light toss of strawberry. These bring out a shy aspect in the varietal’s spicy nature. Hints of cinnamon turn shy and back into a corner. Instead, a mellow hint of melon rind and a trace of earthiness appear, looking on from the edges.
A sip confirms the wine’s fruit forward zeal. Splashes of berry and cherry excite the senses. It’s a light and refreshing red wine that begins mid-palate to fade into a diaphanous strawberry — fine, almost ethereal.
But Graham reached for the throttle with his 2012 Grenache. The full, juicy berry flavor again charges forth, enboldened by red cherry and bulked by impressions of smoked meat and charred earth.
“That’s the Tempranillo,” Graham pointed out. “I try to make it like a classic Rioja” — a reference to the popular, fruity Spanish blend of Tempranillo and Garnacha.
On the finish, a warm spice appears, like an engine in idle raring to go again.
Graham fermented the Granache and Tempranillo separately in oak and fine tuned the blend. But it remains largely Grenache in temperament.
Although the winemaker is loathe to compare vintages, citing the vagaries of sunlight and rainfall and the other factors that taunt farmers, he readily points to the differences between his 2011 and 2012.
“The ‘11 has a little more fruit,” Graham said. “This one has more substance.”
And it’s best to heed a winemaker who listens.
Dave Faries can be reached at 900-2016
