George and Martha Besson’s old Grenache vineyard near Gilroy is one of the best sites with which Birichino works. It could be nothing but Grenache, yet tastes like no other Grenache. While the wines ultimately revert to their highly refined center of gravity as they resolve some time 4 or 5 years after bottling - an elegant composition of tertiary spices, fruit liqueur and alpine botanical extracts - Besson Grenache generally comes out of the gate dominated by one of those elements. The 2018 falls squarely in the liqueur corner, the effect of the rested fraction of the grapes being at least temporarily buried beneath the considerable cherriosity.
