2025 Big Sur Vineyards, Big Sur Red, Central Coast AVA, California.
One of my favorite vintages to date from Lenora Carey’s Big Sur Vineyards and winemaker Ryan Kobza, this deep garnet/ruby hued 2025 Big Sur Red, coming from various vineyard sites, mostly in San Benito County and organic vines, is rich and lively on the medium/full bodied palate with loads of juicy red fruits, spice, delicate florals, subtle earthiness and nice youthful acidity, making for a delightful wine. The version, which gathers different varietals each time out, consists of 27% Grenache, 26% Syrah, 24% Mourvédre and uniquely this time 23% Zinfandel, replacing Petite Sirah, all to delicious effect with black cherry, boysenberry, plum and crushed brambly raspberry fruits, along with cracked peppercorns, anise, cedar, cinnamon spice and geranium flowers in the background here. Kobza, who consults for a small group of Monterey producers, as well as doing his own wines, has a stellar reputation for making transparent, natural styled wines, and this follows suit, he typically de-stems most of the bunches, allows for native fermentations and ages the wines in exclusively used, very seasoned French barriques, as seen here. Lenora’s love of Grenache, still holds strong and while this year it just manages to get top billing by percentage, it delivers the main flow of flavors, with the Zinfandel adding a fruit forward pop here, drink this with heart cuisine choices over the next few years. With the horrible Timber and Plaskett Fires (Big Sur) still burning, we all locally send out our love to the community that is suffering terribly there, and this wine is a nice tribute to their courage in the face of this heartbreaking natural disaster.
As noted before, Big Sur Vineyards, was founded in 2013, and has now been making unique offerings for more than a dozen years, making mostly Rhône inspired wines on the central coast with a tiny estate vineyard overlooking the Big Sur coast up Palo Colorado Canyon and purchasing most of the grapes from small family sustainable vineyards around Monterey County. Owner Lenora Carey, an ex award winning documentary filmmaker, who almost lost everything in the Soberanes (Big Sur) Fire in 2016, has put together a tight collection of local area wines along with some intriguing collaborations. This Rhône blend, the Big Sur Red, is Carey’s signature effort, again, as noted above, put together by winemaker Ryan Kobza, who was the production manager at the I. Brand and Family Winery for many years and who also does a collection of rarities under his own Kobza Wines label, with grapes grown in the Monterey County and San Benito County on a variety of soils and terroirs. Carey has been through the wars, with the Big Sur fires and tough market, especially for a tiny boutique producer herself, but she continues to fight on and make tasty stuff and this vintage of Big Sur Red is well worth chasing down, and is now available at her tasting room in the peaceful Carmel Valley Village, which I recommend visiting soon. This 2025 Big Sur Red, is a clean and easy to quaff red blend, with just about 13.1% natural alcohol, never being hot or flabby, goes down wonderfully with a wide range of dishes, but Lenora suggests roast lamb, and I loved it with a selection of Basque hard cheeses, but it will be just as good with BBQ and or burgers. Again, we in the wine community of Monterey and Carmel send out a message of unity with our Big Sur neighbors and friends that are displaced and hoping for a bit of luck and some positive vibes during these fires.
($46 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive