Hi everyone,
Just a brief introduction to my small California wine project: Beau Rivage Cellars. I actually became a wine critic somewhat by accident, having moved to California in 2015 to work a harvest, with the aspiration of making wine of my own. By 2017, when I was still working for Decanter Magazine, and partnering up with my good friend, Frank Ingriselli (who now works at Rivers-Marie), we were ready to produce our first vintage. The idea was to seek out a site where we could buy grapes from vines of an interesting age, organically farmed, and—given the bootstrap nature of the enterprise—keenly priced. We were also interested to attempt something with a grape variety whose potential has not been extensively explored in California (even if it was the base of a lot of California “Chablis” back in the day): Chenin Blanc.
There is a great Gerald Asher essay about Chenin Blanc in the delta town of Clarksburg, subtitled “the perfect grape in the perfect place”; and we would certainly agree with Asher, as it was in Clarksburg that we found what we were looking for. Just as Bordeaux’s Médoc was drained by Dutch engineers in the 18th century, so Clarksburg was reclaimed by the Holland Land Company in the early 20th century. Its alluvial soils are substantially derived from the millions of tons of crushed rock that were liberated from the mountains during the California Gold Rush. By the 1950s, Chenin Blanc was planted there, and it became the region’s signature grape. Attaining flavor maturity at low potential alcohols thanks to the cooling oceanic influence, the fruit is naturally balanced and a delight to work with. The only challenge is limiting yields in a region that’s often the source of blending grapes for wineries based in more prestigious AVAs.
In any case, given my day job reviewing Burgundy—and given that the grape chemistry of Clarksburg Chenin actually has more in common with Chardonnay from Burgundy than Chenin than the Loire—we decided to apply pretty classical Burgundian winemaking techniques, with careful sorting, crushing, and pressing; unhurried barrel fermentation in used cooperage (both barrels and puncheons); and maturation on the lees. It’s tempting to go into a lot more detail, but all that’s available on our site https://www.beaurivagecellars.com. We make the wine in a corner of the cellar at Spottswoode, with the invaluable help of Aron Weinkauf and his team. It has been fascinating to see the wines evolve in barrel and bottle, and also to observe very obvious vintage variation from year to year—something that will be the theme for our offer here. We produce around 4,000 bottles per year.
December24,2020_1 by WilliamGFKelley, on Flickr