Brij "Grenache" Central Coast, California, USA 2022

FROM PHELAN FARMS

THE WINE: 100% Grenache

THE PRODUCER: Raj Parr, famed Sommelier, author, winemaker and partner at Domaine de la Côte and Sandhi in California and Evening Land in Oregon, set out to do something rather different in 2020: farm. Increasingly convinced that the most fundamental part of winemaking takes place in the vineyard, he traded a partially nomadic lifestyle of traveling, consulting, and wine educating for a more rooted mode of living in Cambria, a secluded town of rocky cliffs, pine forests, and cool climates on California's Central Coast. He had been drawn north from Santa Barbara by a few acres of vines nestled between the mountains and the Pacific: Phelan Farm.

The wines that he produces are made with a light hand in the cellar, without fining or filtering, largely without sulfur, and with low levels of alcohol due to Cambria’s maritime climate. Perhaps most importantly, they are made with grapes that are farmed with great attention to regenerative and biodynamic practices, infusing into the wines both the natural and the cultivated environment of Phelan Farm, a magical piece of land a stone’s throw from the Pacific.