2022 Rosie Rabbit Alicante Bouschet

Tasting Notes:

Alicante Bouschet is a French grape that has been cultivated since 1866 and is a cross of Petit Bouschet and Grenache. It has been widely planted in the south of France, Spain, and Portugal. In California, it was also widely planted and is often a part of field blends. Today solitary vineyards of Alicante Bouschet are rare, which makes this wine very special. Alicante Bouschet is one of the few grapes that has red skin and red pulp, which means the wine is extremely rich and dark. This barrel-aged wine is full-bodied and displays aromas of ripe plums and cherries with spicy soft, luscious flavors of cassis, mocha, and black currants it finishes with firm tannins and excellent structure.

Appellation Notes: Contra Costa County

This wine was grown in Contra Costa County, located within the San Francisco Bay AVA, quite east of the city. The AVA border begins west of the towns of Martinez and Contra Costa, where vineyards are sandwiched between apartment buildings shopping malls, and rooted along the highways that follow the Sacramento-San Joaquin inland river delta. The AVA spans east, and its northern border follows the delta past Oakley and south to Byron. In the 1890s, a host of immigrants, mostly Italian, who had come for the 1849 Gold Rush, established these vineyards in the sandy banks along the delta. Incredibly, some are still producing grapes today.