Producer >
Alex Krause and John Locke founded Birichino in Santa Cruz in 2008. Drawing on a combined four decades making wine in California, France, Italy, and beyond, they are focused on attaining the perfect balance of perfume, poise, and puckishness. Sourcing from a number of carefully farmed, family-owned, own-rooted 19th and early 20th century vineyards (and a few from the late disco era) planted by and large in more moderate, marine-influenced climates, their preoccupation is to safeguard the quality and vibrance of their raw materials. Their preference is for minimal intervention, most often favouring native fermentations, employing stainless or neutral barrels, minimal racking and fining, and avoiding filtration altogether when possible. But most critically, their aim is to make delicious wines that give pleasure, revitalize, and revive.
Viticulture >
Since 2020, we’ve sourced our Grenache for Vin Gris close to
home on a sandy benchland on the Santa Lucia side of the Salinas
Valley (not far from our Malvasia) lending more verve and freshness,and a heightened level of refinement and aromatic complexity.
Old vine Carignane from Montague in Lodi planted circa 1927 again
contributes a vivid violet top-note to the wine.
These practices, along with the significant core contribution of
Cinsault and Mourvèdre grapes from 19th century vineyards, and a
traditionally meridional assemblage, result in [we hope] a wonderfully
prismatic, elevenesque wine with great perfume and sustain; familiar,
yet achieving an extra Tufnelian push over the cliff into the azure
waters of the Mediterranean.
Winemaking >
They have a tightrope practice of direct pressing, settling,
racking and adding each variety as it ripens into one single stainless
tank, effecting one sequential months-long, cool, native fermentation.
Yet extra effort was rewarded, as we’ve internalized the wisdom of
Hans-Günther Schwarz of Müller-Catoir, who once remarked that
"acidity is the fundament of wine." The level of acidity in Vin Gris has
never been excessive, though it has been one or twice, a tad shy. For
this, and a few other arcane reasons, malolactic is inhibited, yielding
a decidely uninhibited brighter, tauter, more vivid wine.
Cinsault, Grenache, Mourvèdre
13.5
UNITED STATES
12
Cork
Arpent Birichino
Vegan
Vegetarian 
Fact Sheet
