Do the Verm.
Warning: Mild PVBR effects (Post-Vermentinto Body Ripple)
occur in 43% of subjects tested
2020 Gros Ventre Vermentino
Normally: $30-35.
Our price: $27 for 1. Buy here.
Only $25 on 3! Buy here.
And only $23 by the case! Buy here!
TL; DR: Just in time for the sunshine: a radically delicious white! Skip the Chard, and 1) get one of the highest-rated Californian Vermentinos ever made instead... from 2) one of the Chronicle's celebrated "Winemakers to Watch..." at 3) the best price it's ever been offered at! Resist the Wine Orthodoxy, and become a vinous 1-percenter!
What if, all this time, you've been drinking the wrong Californian white wine?
Chard. Sauvignon Blanc. Pinot Grigio. Chard. Sauvignon Blanc. Pinot Gri....
Okay: you see where this is going.
Fact: 53% of all white grapes planted in California are Chardonnay! Making the nigh-monoculture worse, another 10% (-ish) each of wine grape acreage is planted to Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio, respectively! That leaves a mere quarter of total land planted to white grapes... for the nigh-hundred other (fascinating, mind-expanding, non-Orwellian, counter-hegemonic, and delicious to boot!) varieties in our great state.
We live in a veritable vinous paradise... so start drinking like it! Humans of California: end the grapey triopoly.... and do the Verm!
Resist vinous orthodoxy
Famed as one of Italy's sexiest white grapes, Vermentino's found primarily in Sardinia, the Ligurian coast, and coastal Tuscany: it's a grape that loves the sun-spangled seaside just as much as a proper Californian does! What vinous injustice, then, accounts for the fact that less than 0.67% of all acreage planted to vine is, um, doing the Verm?
Enter: Chris Pittenger. Named a "Winemaker to Watch" by the SF Chronicle, the man is a master of classic Californian varieties: his Pinot and, ahem, Chardonnay, are often among the highest-rated in the state. But he's also a seeker, a restless thinker, and a man who likes the entire world of wine. So when he heard about a single vineyard of Vermentino in the Sierra Foothills? On pink granite soils, at 2800 feet of elevation? Why he leapt at the chance in less time than it took you to put a "Subvert the Dominant Paradigm" bumper sticker on your Volvo!
Chris Pittenger, of Gros Ventre and Limerick Lane
The Barsotti Vineyard is one of the most respected in all of California: it's farmed organically (non-certified) by Ron Mansfield, a legend of Sierra Foothills viticulture, and it sits more than a half-mile above sea level. As such, the grapes here are slow to ripen, giving them a nervy, racy acidity, and allowing generous white-petal aromatics and stone fruit to develop on the palate. Add a wisp of smoke and salt, a welcome hit of citrus zest follow on the finish, and the whole is mouthwatering and dizzyingly complex. Gleeful, gluggable, this is as good (and anti-Orwellian!) as it gets.
Still unsure? It's not only the winedork community's highest-rated domestic Vermentino of 2020 (beating out stalwarts like Unti, Tablas Creek, and Ryme)... it's also a) the best price in the US on bottle one ($27)... and the best price ever offered on the 6-pack! So don't wait till your bumper stickers arrive; it's time you put down that Chard, and learned to do the Verm!
2020 Gros Ventre Vermentino
Normally: $30-35.
Our price: $27 for 1. Buy here.
(That's the best price in CA on bottle 1!)
Only $25 on 3! Buy here.
And only $23 by the 6-pack! Buy here!
(Best price ever offered!)