2023 Popelouchum Estate, Popelouchum Blanc, Grenache Blanc/Grenache Gris, San Benito County.
The bright golden hued and ripely lush Popelouchum Blanc by Randall Grahm is made from 60% Grenache Blanc and 40% Grenache Gris and is a unique and complex white wine that has slightly reductive petrol notes and a wonderful layered palate and textural pleasure with apricot, nectarine, lemon/lime and earthy muskmelon fruits, along with wet stone, apple butter, bitter almond, subtle floral detail, snappy spices and verbena. Randall Grahm is without question one of the most innovative, thought provoking and iconic California winemakers, and the mind behind the famous Bonny Doon Vineyard and the legendary Cigare Volant (Flying Saucer), his California take of Châteauneuf du Pape. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work with Rhône varieties in California, bringing Mourvèdre and Grenache into the spotlight and for popularizing the use of screw caps on premium wines very early on, fanatically espousing the benefits, way before it became more widely adopted. The distinctive and medium/full bodied Popelouchum Blanc 2023, a cool vintage, still comes in at a healthy 14.5%, but retains a sleek frame and racy acidity, giving a wine of presence and persistence. Grahm picked the grapes on the riper side, then crushed the whole clusters before pressing, allowing some skin-contact, before going to barrel for fermentation and aging. Randall notes the wine was barrel fermented in neutral (French) cooperage, giving the Popelouchum Blanc some leesy richness and transparent form. I had this wine with some top notch white Burgundies and an outstanding Loire Chenin, and it held its own nicely and I suggest decanting it and having it with food for the best results, it is more serious in structure and style than first impressions. As most of Grahm’s wines are, there is a generous quality to this Popelouchum Blanc, which has a core of flinty mineral tones and a crisp, but lingering dry finish, so it never feels flabby.
Randall Grahm’s legacy vineyard and wines are “Popelouchum’’, which is the name the indigenous Mutsun tribe of the San Juan Bautista area gave to their land Grahm notes, adding that an alternative translation of the term is reported to be “Paradise” and that descriptor is particularly apt. for what Grahm, founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, and one of the original “Rhône Rangers” thought of this piece of land when he purchased the property in 2012. It was here that he wanted to start his second mission in life to create a signature single estate wine, and to breed 10,000 new grape varietals to fit the needs of a changing climate and world, both very ambitious projects, especially in the way he planned on doing it, but the wines have been deices so far. Randall was instrumental in bringing attention to Vermentino and Picpoul in California, along with Tablas Creek, believing that these grapes had a significant role to play in the state as temps rise, as they handle heat well and keep acidity. Grahm has all the different Grenaches here at Popelouchum, some Pinot Noir, one of his first loves, along with some ancient Serine clone Syrah. The Popelouchum Blanc 2023 so far, might be my favorite bottling yet, though I really was excited when Randall showed me his first tiny batch of Grenache Noir from the Popelouchum Estate, seeing some huge potential even then. I have had the great pleasure of tasting with Randall a few times over the past almost 30 years and every time I learned something new and mind expanding in most cases, and we both share a love for Riesling. In fact Randall, ever the creative genius or mad scientist, even struck up a partnership with Johannes Selbach many years ago to combine old world Mosel Riesling with new world Riesling, though the idea never really caught on. Grahm’s work with Rhône grapes is somewhat an ironic twist of fate, since in the very beginning he really wanted to make a true terroir driven California Pinot to rival Burgundy, but ended up dressed up as the Pope selling a Grenache and Mourvèdre based wine that became his historic claim to fame.
($45 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive