REBEL GRAPE SOCIETY
march 2021
THREE LITTLE BIRDS
The Birds of Passage project is the clever winecraft of three birds flocking together: Henry Beylen, the wine director of LA’s beloved Venice restaurant Gjelina, and husband and wife crew Peter Hunken and Amy Christine MW, the team behind Holus-Bolus wines. Peter has made wine in Lompoc since 2001, working as assistant winemaker at Stolpman Vineyards and as co-founder of Piedrasassi through 2008. Amy and Peter met in 2004 and have made wine together since, while she also represents Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant. And in 2013 Amy became a Master of Wine, one of only thirteen women in the US to rock the MW title. Henry Beylen sought out the Holus-Bolus winemakers at their winery in the “Lompoc Wine Ghetto” with a flight of fancy in mind – to make wines for Gjelina Restaurant that were delicious and intriguing and made from organic vineyards in Santa Barbara County. The birds made their debut in 2018 with their first Rosé, and the following year with their Grenache Blanc and Gamay. These three wines from our clever Birds are yet another feather in California’s cap, proving what great grapes on great sites can do in the right Rebel hands.
– Kevin Wardell, March 2021
BIRD OF PASSAGE
Santa Ynez Valley, California 2019
GRENACHE [gruh-NAWSH]
While we met another version of Grenache blanc in last month’s Rebel Wine Club, The Birds play with the grape’s characteristic rich phenolics and citrus oiliness by fermenting on the skins for deeper extraction and texture. The grapes come from a tiny one acre site growing just outside of the very bizarre tourist trap of Solvang – a rural town in the hills of Santa Barbara that doubles as a traditional Danish village, windmills and tulips and all. The Grenache blanc is de-stemmed and then fermented on the skins in a stainless steel tank for 15 days before pressing. It is aged in neutral french oak for 6 months before bottling, with just a scant 60 cases made.
This is a wild bird of many colors, with initial flamboyant aromatics like sweet nectarines, baked golden apples, quince paste and even dried persimmon. The palate isn’t quite as fruity, but goes more savory and saline with a full and rich texture that isn’t as waxy as one would think, both given the variety and the two weeks on the skins. There is an aromatic of sweet wood throughout like sandalwood or cedar, and just a bit of tannin that is pleasantly drying, with a quenching balance that keeps you revisiting it to discover more. Skin contact wines can be tricky, but this one has nailed an elusive balance beautifully.
BIRD OF PASSAGE
Santa Maria Valley, California 2019
REFOSCO [ree-FOH-skoh]
Refosco is a Bergamot favorite. It is a rarity even in its Friulian home, let alone in all of California, and then on this far flung central coast hillside. The Santa Maria Valley is actually the oldest grape growing region in central California, dating back to the Mexican Colonial period of the 1830s. There was certainly no Refosco here until the Tres Hermanas vineyard planted this dark and tannic variety in their cool coastal site. The Birds press the Refosco straight away for minimal extraction, ferment in stainless steel, and age the wine in a mix of stainless steel and neutral oak, before bottling a mere 95 cases of this pink.
Vibrant copper colored pink that is brilliant and fleshy, bright and savory, full-bodied and spicy. The mid-palate is rich with peach yogurt and a savory cantaloupe texture, but all that fruit roundness finishes with a fistful of herbs like fresh tarragon, oregano and marjoram. A rebellious Refosco rosé – a wine making its own unique category with an obscure grape in an obscure region. Winner, winner… well, we’ll get around to making dinner after this bottle.
BIRD OF PASSAGE
Santa Ynez Valley, California 2019
GAMAY [Ga-Māy]
There’s precious little Gamay in California but fortunately folks are getting wise to this grape’s glugglable goodness. There are Gamay plantings in varied sites, including the home of this wine – the Savannah Oaks vineyard, a 25-acre mixed site on the northern edge of the Santa Ynez Valley. The Birds harvest this fruit early, to retain its fresh acidity and aromatics, and then ferment the Gamay, destemmed, in open-top stainless steel for 18 days. It is aged in neutral French oak for six months before bottling a miniscule 75 cases. At just 11% ABV this wine has a mind-boggling low alcohol content for all its play, character and aromatics.
This wine is crazy aromatic out of the gate, with cinnamon and wild feral brambly black raspberries. This is brick dust and yet velvety, exotic and somehow nostalgic. Hard to get your nose out of this glass, actually. Super compelling, but is it so very Gamay..? There is something intriguingly Jura-ssic, or maybe passe-tout-grainy, like bad-boy Burgundy on a surf trip in Southern California. All are truly wonderfully delicious things to be sensing out of this glass, just not the classic punchy Gamay notes one might expect. Restrained in ripeness but not at all lacking in body. Opens gracefully, even better day 2.