The Vinferno - Bonny Doon Vineyard

2004 Le Cigare Blanc
From what far-flung, telic appellation might be dispatched a white
cigar? Le Cigare Blanc is the white analogue of Le Cigare Volant,
our homage to the complex blended wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
This iteration is dominated– strictly in the proportional sense–by
roussanne, to the tune of 72.4% of the overall blend which seems to
contribute a real sense of minerality to the wine. We have supplemented
the roussanne with a significant fraction of grenache blanc, which adds
tannic structure and an unmistakable peachiness, and a homeopathic
dose of marsanne for the je ne sais quoi. The wine is intensely suggestive of
white peach, honeydew, lime blossom, lilac and the stony goût des minéraux,
contributed by an exceedingly far-off hillside. Resistance is futile.
2004 Clos de Gilroy (Grenache)
While it is true that we have historically enjoyed the elegant grenaches
that have emerged from cooler vintages in California, we are not
utterly unhappy with the results of the ’04 vintage, which everybonny
knows was quite a scorcher. The ’04 has a much more defined tannic
structure than Gilroys d’antan, resembling a rather powerful Côtes du
Rhône, as much as anything else. The wine is peppery as all get-out
with a bright core of red fruit, grenache’s raisin d’être. We bottled this
wine perhaps too early, in a somewhat misguided attempt to beat
the Beaujolais boys at their own game. (So, where’s DuBoeuf?) In
retrospect, the wine was perhaps too powerful to really show as well
as it might upon its early release, but of this writing, it is just glorious
–an explosion of fruit and a long, lingering finish.
2003 Big House Red
What remains to be said for the wine that inspired a thousand red
trucks, antlered mammals and any number of other counterfeit
œnvil-doers? This year’s model is built around substantial tranches
of syrah, petite sirah and carignane, so despite the Italian conceit on the
label, there is more than a faint echo of the Languedoc to be found.
The ’03 reprises all of the subtle and not-so-subtle charms which
have distinguished this wine from the beginning: a potent blast
of raspberry and licorice; a wide variety of subtle, satellite notes
courtesy of grenache, barbera, malbec, usw., a soft, plush midsection that
would have been contained in early days by plaid sans-a-belts; a surprising
long and complex finish; and of course, the stylish Stelvin screwcaps
(which, two years on chez Doon, have acquitted themselves admirably).
2003 Syrah “Le Pousseur”
There is something very charming in the notion of “Le Pousseur,”
part herbalist, alchemist, snake oil salesperson and loveable though
treacherous scam artist, who, paradoxically, unaccountably, is
hawking the genuine article. This is the man to see, withal in a very
sketchy back alley, if you want to score some very good schist. And