2023 Perilune – by Greg Brewer, Chardonnay, Sta. Rita Hills AVA Santa Barbara County.
On a recent trip and fact finding mission to Santa Barbara County’s Los Olivos and Los Alamos, I couldn’t help but not stop in and see what Greg Brewer was up to, even though he was jetting around the country, I was able to try this fascinating all concrete egg raised single vineyard and single clone Chardonnay, which was truly stunning. Greg, winemaker at Brewer-Clifton, has always been on a path towards the purest form of Chardonnay, starting with his early Brewer-Clifton wines, like his Montrachet like Mt Carmel 2000, still one of my all time favorite wines, and through his Diatom series of Innox, all stainless, Chardonnay in a vacuum bottlings, but this Perilune is his epic achievement in the grape so far. Leaning on mineral driven character, subtle fruit and delicate florals, this 2023 Perilune delivers lime fresh citrus, green apple, Asian pear and faint tropical fruits in the glass with a pale green/gold and straw hue, there’s also hints of lees, fresh dough, clove spice, orange flower, wet chalk and sea shore notes. This wine, that was fermented and raised or aged about 9 months in concrete on the yeast and six months in bottle, feels perfectly balanced, textural and lengthy, without weight or overt acidity, even though it is crispy detailed and has a sense of tension. This cool vintage really brought out the best here, giving the ultimate in clarity and long hang time complexity and concentration, all seen here in Brewer’s Perilune, a very limited and exclusive wine, that enthusiasts will want to add to their wish list. I always applaud wines without compromise and made with total believe and passion for place, and this wine is that.
Winemaker Greg Brewer’s Perilune Chardonnay is sourced from a single block of clone 17 (Chardonnay) which is harvested well before his typical range to capture a higher octave and less fruit forward voice of place. Brewer also Inhibited malolactic for clarity and precision, which makes for a striking wine, as seen here in his 2023 version, easily one of the most interesting and dynamic examples of California Chardonnay I’ve tasted to date. Brewer says the Perilune is by far and away the most ambitiously complex of all his vineyards. From beach sand to Botella clay, the rugged terrain and dramatic inclines offer a myriad of opportunities for dynamic fruit expression, which Brewer has exploited to near perfection here. Brewer continues that he wanted to see how he could demonstrate the voice of this place, Perilune, in a manner somehow divergent from Brewer-Clifton versions. he wished to remain steadfast in our prioritization of neutral vessels, yet were desirous to arrive at a new means of site expression, which he did with the concrete eggs. Greg adds that one singular concrete egg was the clear pursuit and the deliberate choice, here with this wine. The egg’s size, shape, texture and spirit, he explains, seemed perfectly aligned with all of his objectives. Volumetrically confining, as he puts it, yet liberating in its representation of incubation and birth, of such a unique and thrilling Chardonnay, all makes sense, especially when you taste it! One of the pioneers of the region, since the early 1990s Brewer is at home in the Sta. Rita Hills, which to him has always been evocative of something lunar, hence the name, stark, empty, open and contemplative, again which has come across in his wine.
($125 Est.) 96 Points, grapelive