2025 Big Basin Vineyards, Rosé, Central Coast, California.
This slight different 2025 version of Big Basin’s tasty Rosé with its 32% Syrah, 32% Carignan, 24%Grenache, and 12% Mourvedre, is made up with a touch more Syrah this time, but still deliciously Provence in style, lively in the glass and pale salmon in color, with a crisp, racy, dry and fresh palate that highlights the vintage nicely. There’s the classic array of flavors, sour cherry, strawberry, brambly crushed raspberry, ruby grapefruit and watermelon, along with wet stone, mineral, sage spice, rosewater and orange tea notes. The light bodied and taut structured Big Basin Rosé is usually Grenache dominant and typically shows it with a openly round and generous mouth feel that unfolds purposely and slowly in the mouth, eventually evolving into a very full and complex pink wine, similar to those stylish Provence offerings. It’s great with seasonal cuisine and sea food, especially steamed mussels and or BBQed oysters, with the 2025, as owner Bradley Brown notes, was picked specifically for this purpose, to make a Rosé, and was picked earlier with lower sugars and vibrant natural citrusy acidity. It was whole cluster pressed, like a white wine with no maceration, then cold fermented like a while white with some added Syrah and Mourvedre typically being blended in later for color, a bit more depth and structure, as seen here. Interestingly, the indigenous fermentation for this wine usually takes a while and sometimes finishes just a few weeks before bottling. It is sad to report that Brown has put the final touches of the sale of the estate property and the future of this label is unsettled, as I’ve been a huge fan of these wines for so long.
Bradley Brown’s Big Basin Vineyards based in the remote Santa Cruz Mountains is known mostly for their critically acclaimed estate Rattlesnake Rock Syrah, an iconic and profound California terroir driven wine, as well as a hand crafted collection of Rhone style bottlings, but in recent years their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines have really impressed and gained traction, especially Brown’s whole cluster driven Alfaro Family Vineyard and his elegant and Burgundy like Coastview Chardonnay, a big favorite of mine. That all said, I am really into the Big Basin Vineyards dry Rosé, which is blend of Rôone varietals, with this vintage, as noted, having 24%% Chalone Grenache Noir, 32% Carignane, 32% Syrah and 12% Mourvedre sourced from vineyards in Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara (Gilroy area) and the Santa Cruz Mountains. Big Basin, over the last couple of decades now, is known mostly for, as mentioned, their signature estate grown Rattlesnake Rock Alban Clone Syrah and other Rhône style offerings, should not get overlooked for their Chardonnay and Pinots, in particular the Coastview, Alfaro and this Lester version, these are compelling and glorious wines that are impressive in every way. For the 2025 Rosé, Brown says he acquired some beautiful Grenache from the Certified Organic Rodnick.Farms vines in Chalone, with its chalky limestone soils, which shines nicely in the final wine. This Grenache was picked, again as noted, specifically for Rosé, so it was picked earlier than would be the case for a red wine, keeping it wonderfully refreshing, but I think personally that the Carignane, from old vines, really helps make this Rosé stand out in a large crown of pink wines these days, and I highly recommend it.
($27 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive