Nose
Counoise starts with aromas of cherry, grenadine, mace, star anise and barrel toast.
Palate
The palate shows that rugged chaparral spice that made this blend world-famous, alongside dark-raspberry, boysenberry, roasted fennel and anise flavors.
Growing Conditions
Since early 2004, we have adopted Biodynamic viticulture and biodynamic practices in as many of our vineyards as practicable. (Biodynamic seems to work best when it is voluntarily adopted, not something that is taken up coercively.) Because we work with fairly esoteric grape varieties, it has not always been possible to find growers of these varieties who are equally passionate about Biodynamic practice. It has been an ongoing work to try to lead by example, and we are hopeful of eventually bringing 100% of our growers to the practice out of their own sincere interest. We believe this practice gives us the best opportunity to produce the most distinctive and interesting, and in a word, the most vibrant wines possible.
AVAs:
- 82% Monterey
- 14% Central Coast
- 4% Santa Ynez
Winemaking
In cool years the Grenache is enormously pretty and fragrant. This wine was one of the first years of production for Cinsault and it was thinned multiple times both for enhanced concentration and evenness of ripening. The cooler climate gives the Cinsault a wonderful articulation of flavor, but what is most noteworthy is the fact that Bonny Doon was able to conferment the Consult with Syrah. Something magical happens when Syrah and Cinsault marry; the healthy tannin titer from the Syrah seems to give more structure to the Cinsault, helps to stabilize the color. The spicy, licorice component from the Syrah is a perfect foil to the Griotte cherry derived from the Cinsault.
We typically destem but not crush 65-85% of the grapes, the balance being a percentage of whole clusters. The stem tannin is interesting, (especially if the grapes have been harvested in conjunction with the recession of the sap back into the plant); the presence of whole berries seems to regulate the speed of the fermentation, as sugar from the broken berries is gradually being released into the must.
We typically allow for a pre-fermentation cold soak of 5-10 days and make certain through microscopic observation that our indigenous yeast species is appropriate for the conduct of a clean and complete fermentation. We really like the technique of pied de cuve, whereby we will pre-harvest a portion of the grapes and allow them to “go wild,” as it were, and then inoculate the main batch with this starter culture. We punch down the caps of the ferments in open-top tanks and for more robust, rustic varieties, utilize the technique known as délestage, or rack-and-return, which is the removal and return of fermenting juice from the tank.
We like long cuvaisons, as unfashionable as they may be, typically on the order of thirty days and thirty nights, sometimes longer and ideally with warm temperatures, especially at the fermentation’s dénouement. We also selectively practice microbullage, or micro-oxygenation of the wine, post-fermentation, to help give additional structure to the wine. We like to assemble our blends early in the life of the wine as possible, but at the same time also like to delay the completion of malolactic fermentation at least until spring if possible (this allows us to bottle our wines with typically much lower levels of total SO2).
Aging
We eschew (there’s a lot of eschewal going on chez Doon) smaller wooden cooperage as much as possible, and primarily age our red wines in a mixture of well-conditioned 500-liter puncheons and 10,000-liter upright wood tanks.3 The latter is equipped with “lees hotels;” (lees check in but they don’t check out!), maybe better described as perforated stainless steel shelves on which the lees can deposit. Once reposing in cask, we touch the wine as little as possible. Our red wines are seldom fined and filtered.
Appearance
A light-red hue in the glass.
