BRAMBLES: Chasing Greatness...

Beginnings of greatness on Sonoma Mountain AVA

Flowering grapevines now blanket the North Coast vineyard landscape, a fresh start with the annual anticipation of a great harvest bathed in warmer degree days later in the volatile growing season. Comparatively, it is not unlike the national pass time, where groomed conditions awaken in the early spring, in preparation for the long developing run into, hopefully, the post season and a chance for ever-elusive renown. Greatness should, after-all, be elusive, served only to the most resilient, the strongest, and the very best.

Prized Riesling vineyards of Johannisberg, Rheingau

For most wine consumers greatness is ever elusive, as the overwhelming majority of consumers sponge low price point wines consistently produced by large industrial complexes where accountants or shareholders may carry more influence than contracted growers or accomplished winemakers. Those that casually quaff the best of global wines, also find greatness as rare as fine vintages or perfect growing conditions for the most esteemed estates.  Additionally, something as personal as wine has always had the handicap of being subjective: what's good to me may be swill to you.

Part of what makes wine so socially enjoyable is the constant quest to discover a lasting memory that can be shared. Imagine a wine that you can have a conversation with, a goblet that for that instant becomes so much more than just a social beverage. When we find a wine that speaks to us, that opens its soul so that we have a relationship with it, that can be a moment to remember.  There are certainly wines that have all the bells and whistles, all the shining varietal characteristics delivered in balance across almost all price points.  But, a wine that can transport you to a place, to a surprising memory, or for a brief moment to display a story of its unique path is a very special wine that may be on the cusp of greatness.  It can be authentic, an honest expression.

Terraced Syrah vineyards of Cote Rotie

Authenticity is not common to all wines, in spite of what may give us the appearance of vintage consistency. A harmony of the nurtured vine, its true fruit expression in concert with its place and environment, where its 'whole' is more that the total of its parts is then so much closer to authentic. Even as it may appear to most as too esoteric, when found in the glass authentic wines tend to stand out.  For many wine lovers' it becomes their 'ah-ha' moment.  These then are 'honest' wines, a liquid story of a time and a place and careful nurturing that allows them to approach greatness.  Routinely, this is more difficult with the dilution of multiple vineyard sources, where the singular focus becomes prismatic.  Talented winemakers then can then take numerous instruments to compose very unique, yet still authentic, liquid compositions.

It is those rare, innate attributes that are the reasons wine lovers continue to search for greatness.  In that moment when the bottle is pulled from the shelf or ordered off a well-tailored wine list can be filled with the weight of mystery, but buoyed with the yearning to find greatness.  Historically there are prized vineyards or estates that routinely get to the post season for wine lovers because they define, because they know who they are. How fortunate are then are those chasing greatness when its expression can be surprisingly found in the unexpected.  It's even richer when it is a consumer value.

Salute!