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May 16-18 - Cooking for Solutions

May 18 - Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Train

May 26 - Boulder Creek Art & Wine

May 31 - Vintners' Festival, Santa Cruz side

Jun 7 - First Saturday Tour

Jun 7-8 - Spring Art Show and Vintners' Festival

2002 Viognier, Finley Vineyard, Randall Grahm clone

2001 was the first release of wines off our most recently planted acreage, the Finley Vineyard. Located on the south side of Mount Eden Road, across from Garrod Road, the seven-acre vineyard is named after the family who originally owned the piece way back then.

Of the seven acres in the Finley Vineyard, two are planted in this Viognier. When we put them in four years ago, however, we were planting Rousanne. Sit down...

George was looking for a second white wine that would fare well in our little corner of the world plus be interesting and fun. . He really enjoyed the Rousanne he had tasted on a wine jaunt along the central coast and spoke with Dan Gehrs about the nice Rousanne Dan was making at Zaca Mesa. Dan had grafted Zaca Mesa's Rousanne in the mid 80's with scion wood that harkens back to Rousanne cuttings which Randall Grahm (Bonny Doon's President for Life) brought to the New World from France about 20 years ago.

Until two years ago, all concerned were growing and making Rousanne, a Rhone varietals, from these vines. At that time, a visiting French viticulturalist recognized subtle differences in the leaf structure - et, voila! - suddenly the half-dozen or so wineries that traced field grafts to Grahm's Rousanne learned they have a different Rhone varietal: Viognier!!

Viognier is typically a low-yielding grape, and the first harvest from our two acres produced only 92 cases. Whatever the origin of the grape, we hope you enjoy the enticing apricot, peach, and occasional pear flavors with the rich smoothness as much as we do. We find it to be an ideal white wine for many occasions, lush and far from common.