Behind The Bottle - Starblanket
Have you ever heard of the Voyager Golden Record? That’s it on the label. It was sort of an Earth time-capsule packed aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft meant for discovery by another spacefaring civilization one day. It’s filled with images, music, environmental sounds and greetings in many Earth languages. Voyager 1 is currently trucking along at about 38,000 miles per hour, having left our solar system back in 2012. It’s about 14 million miles away from Earth and expected to arrive at the Oort Cloud in roughly 300 years. That’s got to be the most ambitious message-in-a-bottle gesture ever attempted. Until now.
Just kidding.
Starblanket is a relatively straightforward blend by our standards, pouring equal amounts of sticky, dark Petite Sirah and buoyant Grenache into the same carafe to make a hearty, bold red. I’m bewitched by interesting, surprising wines and I seek them out. But I also love wines that simply bowl you over like a clumsy puppy. These wines bring emotion with them all the same and that’s what I’m hunting for.
The Petite Sirah portion is of course, Aaron’s pride and joy. It’s a grape that originates in France, where it’s known as Durif. It’s a descendant of Syrah, crossed with a grape called Peloursin. It was brought to American soil in 1884, and was nicknamed Petite Sirah due to well, you can guess why. Because this grape is newer (first hybridized in 1868) and has never had a strong tradition of cultivation. So it’s a bit of an untapped resource. All the effort that goes into refining wine – think about choosing particular soil types, climates and locations. Think about selecting and propagating certain parts of vineyards to increase the quality of the plant material. Think of the refinement of winemaking technique over generations. Pretty much none of that has been yet undertaken for Petite Sirah. The French were quick to write it off. But to his credit, Aaron is, in some ways, a founder of the tradition to elevate Petite Sirah.
In his hands, Petite Sirah is a full-bodied red with very dark violet-blue color. It has considerable tannin and acidity, a very formidable combination that can lead to wines that are texturally too intense – think chewy and mouthwatering at the same time. Aaron’s study of PS has led him to find cool climate sites and experiment with soil types to balance the grapes. His winemaking style is focused on cush textures, rich midpalates and harmony from start to finish.
The Grenache in this blend is from Spanish Springs, which is a funny place. It’s a private housing development for the ultra-wealthy that planted vineyards for fun and the “lifestyle” of it all. But it turned out that the developers stumbled into legitimate vineyard land just a couple miles from Pismo Beach and now you have a far more practical farm atmosphere here than the bespoke country estates that the developers had in mind. There’s a lot of limestone and sandstone here which brings a lot of acidity and fineness of texture to Grenache which is a grape that tends towards a liqueur like thickness. Just goes to show what a unique site can do to your produce!
I use this one the way I would use a classic Dry Creek red wine or a bold Zin – as an uncomplicated and nostalgic backyard banger. Grilling and Starblanket are a match made in the heavens, and I also find it to be just the thing when the table wants a second bottle because we’re still having fun, but we don’t need anything too fancy. This wine gets better every time I try it, which is a pleasant surprise!
We only made two barrels.