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Birichino Winery has begun releasing its 2023 wines, and according to co-owner John Locke, the year produced “one of the best vintages we’ve ever encountered.” With Locke and his partner Alex Krause’s experience in the industry, including working under Randall Grahm at Bonny Doon Winery and founding Birichino in 2008, that is saying quite a bit.
“We had very nice weather in springtime,” Locke said. “There was abundant rain, but it did not cause the mildew issues we saw in 2017. There was a modest crop, and the lovely weather through winter and fall had no punishing heat spikes.”
Sourcing many of their grapes from San Benito County’s Cienega Valley, which Locke said has “more privileged soil types than most places,” the winery did not have to worry about some of the problems vineyards in nearby regions may have faced.
“Some people experienced mildew issues in the Salinas Valley,” he said. “The Cienega Valley is warm, but it’s two mountain ranges are away from the ocean, so there is some pull-down and cool air.”
Locke has a particular affection for Hollister’s Enz Vineyard, which was first planted in 1923, saying it has a distinctive signature that transcends varietal character.
“I like that Enz exhibits this quality where,” he said, “if you taste the wines enough, the signature of the vineyard becomes very apparent, and the character of the variety is not so clear.”
For Locke, the pinot noirs, mourvedres, cabernet pfeffers, and zinfandels from Enz all share common and unique qualities.
“They are always more floral than we expect they would be,” he said. “There’s a tannic quality at the bottom and a really perfumed element at the top. They have this very upright, live character.”
Locke says one of his happiest moments is walking into a vineyard a month before it’s picked.
“You start to feel it vibrate,” he said. “It begins to come alive. A pure viticulturist, which I am not, probably feels that way at bud break. Learning the vineyard over a long term, I feel it start to talk, figuratively.”
While pleased that the current vintage is superior, Locke said the wine industry in general has seen better days, with several challenges and uncertainty about whether they are temporary or permanent. One looming issue is the current wave of tariffs, which have already impacted Birichino’s exports, he said, and caused the sole Canadian importer, Société des alcools du Québec, to cancel orders.
“There’s a lot of sturm and drang,” Locke said. “There will be this Kabuki theater of tariffs being placed and withdrawn and outrage and coming together. The cycle will continue until something is resolved.”
Another issue is the downward trend in wine consumption as younger generations seek out other forms of alcohol.
“There have been changes in drinking behavior,” Locke said, “both in how much and what sort of things people consume, and at what sort of price. Wine is declining, but good craft beers are still just packing people in.”
Part of the problem is that, for many consumers, the amount of wine on the market makes it harder to discern higher-quality wines. Locke said that wine is just a commodity for some producers, with “labels slapped on something assembled from wherever.”
Still, he said, the “youngest cohort” might still have pockets of interest and engagement.
“Someone was showing me a graph of reduced wine consumption by Baby Boomers,” Locke said. “At the same time, the tasting room was full of people in their 20s and 30s. I think there will always be an audience for our wines if we do our job in letting people know about them.”
A few wines from the tasting:
2023 Malvasia Bianca – “The aroma is eye-opening,” Locke said. “To most people, they consciously or subconsciously associate it with sweetness, but the wine is bone dry. You expect one feeling from the perfume, but the palette registers something different. It creates a feeling of tension and dissonance.” The aroma is stunning, full of honey and apple blossoms, which carries into this very smooth wine in a very subdued way. It’s a perfect hot day wine for sipping in the shade.
2024 Car Car Glou Glou Akashita Old Vine Carignane – The name of the wine is a bit of an onomatopoeia, mean to to reflect the sound of someone gulping this wine down. Locke said the wine is made using carbonic maceration, with the uncrushed grapes fermenting in a carbon dioxide-rich environment, which results in a less tannic wine with modest alcohol. “The grapes start to soften up,” he said. “They break apart, juice is released, comes in contact with the yeast and produces these esters with strawberry and sometimes even banana sort of flavors.” The strawberry and some fresh cherry come through in the aroma, and the wine is soft on the palette with an easy, medium acidity that provides tartness to the finish.
2023 Besson Grenache – “This tastes exactly like grenache,” Locke said, “but it tastes like no other grenache. It’s very classic and very specific at the same time. We try not to fetishize a connection between how something’s grown here and how it’s grown in the old world. But this could be Châteauneuf.” Locke said this grenache is one of his favorites of the wines they’ve produced, and it definitely stands out. Lightly perfumed, it has a fruitiness that does not overwhelm and fine tannins that catch at the back end. Like all Besson grenaches, the wine has a charisma that is hard to resist.
2022 Enz Pinot Noir – “I love that this pinot noir does not taste like pinot noir to me,” Locke said. “We vinify it on its own because this vineyard, perhaps more than any other with which we deal, has a very particular vineyard signature.” On their website, the taste of the wine is charmingly described as “licking freeze-dried watermelon powder off of cool, damp river stones, with a violet liqueur chaser.” The taste is dark fruit with a layer of pepper and no jagged edges, creating a truly elegant wine.
Birichino Winery Tasting Room
204 Church St, Santa Cruz, CA
(831) 425-4811
Thursday 4-8 p.m.
Friday 1-8 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday 1-6 p.m.
Birichino wines are available locally at Crave Wine Co., 616 San Benito Street in Hollister.
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
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