2007 Bonny Doon Ca' del Solo Nebbiolo

Bonny Doon Vineyard near Santa Cruz is one of California’s most idiosyncratic producers, thanks to its founder, Randall Graham. Graham was a Pinot Noir obsessed college student in Santa Cruz in the late 1970s, who, a few years later, convinced his parents to help him start a winery in Bonny Doon, a hamlet in the Santa Cruz mountains. Unable to produce Pinot Noir that pleased him, he switched to making wines with Rhone grapes. In 1986 he released his first commercial wine, the 1984 Le Cigar Volant, which was an homage to Châteauneuf du Pape. The rest is history. Graham was among the first California producers to make and successfully market Rhone-style wines, and his were especially notable for their off-beat labels, tongue-in-cheek names and contrarian marketing. He started using screwcaps when they were still reviled by many in the industry, and expanded his Euro-centric approach to winemaking to include Italian and Spanish-style wines. By the early 21st century wine reviewers blamed Bonny Doon’s very large production levels for a drop in quality, and Graham subsequently sold off several of his more commercial labels. Today the estate still focuses on wines made from Rhone, Italian and Spanish grapes. Robert M. Parker Jr. has written that Graham “is one of the most gifted and brilliant wine producers in California.”

Monterey AVA is in Monterey County, south of San Francisco. The long, narrow appellation is a 100-mile ribbon of land that extends from north Monterey County south to the edge of Paso Robles. Most of the AVA is considerably inland from the Pacific Coast, and to the east of the Santa Lucia mountain range. About 40,000 vineyard acres are inside the AVA, making it one of California’s larger appellations. Monterey County, in fact, produces almost as much wine as Napa County because the floor of the valley is taken up by large industrial vineyards producing grapes for bulk wine. However, there are also many premier wine estates within Monterey AVA and its numerous sub-appellations. Monterey AVA includes four recognized micro climates, ranging from a cool, maritime climate at the north end to what is known in California as a Region 4 climate in the south, meaning relatively hot and dry. Monterey AVA includes parts of Carmel Valley and Salinas Valley. More than 50% of the grapes grown in the Monterey AVA are Chardonnay, though the many terroirs and micro climates mean that numerous grapes grow well. Merlot, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Zinfandel and Pinot Blanc are widely planted.

This red grape is most often associated with Piedmont, where it becomes DOCG Barolo and Barbaresco, among others. Its name comes from Italian for “fog,” which descends over the region at harvest. The fruit also gains a foggy white veil when mature.