Many SommSelect subscribers know Big Basin for some of the most nuanced, “Burgundian” Pinot Noirs not just in the Santa Cruz Mountains but the entire West Coast, but Bradley Brown’s keen focus on sustainable farming and cool-climate viticulture pays dividends across a wide spectrum of wines—including an assortment of Rhône-style blends like this now-famous “GSM” (Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre) bottling. For this wine, Brown reaches into the nearby Gabilan Mountains—whose rocky, scrubby, windswept slopes are inhospitable to anything other than wine grapes—for his source material, and the results are reliably impressive: We can’t remember another example of this classic Southern Rhône blend, French or otherwise, that delivered this level of elegance and perfume. Taste it and you’ll be reminded of great reds from Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Bandol, but really, it’s in a class by itself.
Composed of roughly one-third each Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre, this 2019 was fermented with 100% of the whole grape clusters intact, which helps moderate the alcohol and lends a spicy note. The Grenache was aged in 240-gallon concrete tanks, while the Syrah and Mourvèdre were aged in larger neutral barrels. Tasting the wine, it’s easy to conjure the image of the dusty Gabilan Range, and its lofty hilltop vineyards, which look like they were airlifted into place among the thick forests.
It is simultaneously rich and vivid—ripe but fine and aromatic—with a deep ruby-purple hue and aromas of blackberry, brandy-soaked cherries, lavender, violets, wild herbs, grill char, and crushed stones. Each of the three component varieties makes its voice heard as the wine blossoms in the glass: the sappy cherry notes of the Grenache; the purple-flower perfume of the Mourvèdre; the dark, meaty, spicy kick of the Syrah. Pair with herb-crusted lamb chops for a Rhône-inspired feast.
