New releases from Vineyard Grant James

​Some things get better and better, and there are always new things that are pretty good, at least that is what awaited our gang of intrepid winers at Vineyard Grant James.  We were a bit under the weather before our trip, as seen in the picture below:

​Of course, after a few glasses of wine, we looked like this:

​As for the better and better, Susanne Sapier, winemaker extraordinaire, introduced us to her 2020 vintage Nebbiolo.  Their past vintages have been very good, but this one is just that one step above even though it has only aged two years! I hope to see what it is like with a few more years of aging, but, well, it is really, really good right now and sometimes I get very thirsty and the dog ate my homework….
As for the new things, we got to taste both a Carmenere and an Alicante Bouchet.  Carmenere is often referred to as the lost grape of Bordeaux.  Back in the 19th century, most of the vines in Europe were wiped out by root louse from America when some idiots brought live North American vines to France and planted them in Bordeaux.  Carmenere was widely planted in Bordeaux at the time and was wiped out entirely from Europe.  Fortunately, the grape had already made its way to Chile, being mistaken for Merlot.  Anyway, we got to taste the Grant James version, and it is pretty similar to the Chilean version, with a very unique jalapeño flavor.  Hope to buy some as soon as they have labels on the bottles.
During Prohibition, you were allowed to make wine at home for your own consumption, so growers in California grew grapes and shipped them east.  As Alicante Bouchet is a very thick-skinned grape that could handle the long train ride, it was the grape of choice.  It is a bit of a rare type of grape in that its skin and flesh are both red.  It is a cross created by Henri Bouchet, who crossed Grenache with Petit Bouchet, itself a cross created by his father.  The Grant James version is a very nice wine, of which we consumed very large quantities.