Vine Path Blog 10/20: Inconnu WIne
Inconnu Wine Vine Path Blog 10/20:
Inconnu is the passion project of the young, brilliant, and self taught winemaker Laura Brennan Bissell. Originally from Washington DC, Brennan Bissell moved to the Bay Area when she was 22 to pursue a career as a tattoo artist but instead ended up touring the US with bands and living that punk rock life. Eventually she washes ashore in Barcelona, where she falls in love with the local food and wine scene and discovers natural wine in the process. It is here that she develops a determination to be a winemaker. The fact that she had no college education, no winemaking experience, and no formal winemaking training wasn’t going to stop her. In her own words, she sends off a ‘very embellished’ CV to Unti Vineyards in Healdsburg and ends up with an internship at one of the most famous wineries in the Dry Creek Valley. Her first vintage was vinified in 2011 and in 2013 she began work at Matthiasson, one of the Napa Valley’s most ambitious and acclaimed organic wineries. Today, she’s making wine in a tiny warehouse in Napa and the wine is very, very good. Really good. All the wines are produced with a dogma: only use spontaneous ferments, keep sulfur low, intervene as little as possible, and only crush ethically farmed grapes. Despite this natural bent the wines of Inconnu are clean and precise, vividly expressing varietal typicity.
Inconu Lalalu Chardonnay
Inconnu 2018 Lalalu California Chardonnay
‘Inconnu’, as it turns out, is not a made up word (as I first suspected). It means an unknown person or thing. This meaning reflects the philosophical backbone that holds the winery up. You’re probably wondering how a California Chardonnay could possibly represent an unknown thing, for it is in fact California’s most popular and valuable grape. What makes this Chardonnay an unknown is the ways in which it defies your expectations. Finishing at a mere 11% ABV, this Clarksburg sourced Chardonnay is only given a touch of oak, none of it new, and it doesn’t go through malolactic fermentation. It’s bottled unfined and unfiltered so you may see some sediment in the bottle. The wine tastes electric, it’s lean, light, and bright, making it the virtual opposite of what California chardonnay assumes it is about. Ultimately it reminds one of Premier Cru Chablis rather than Rombauer and we love that.
Inconnu Kitsune
Inconnu 2018 Kitsune
What originally piqued our interest in the wines of Inconnu was her focus on Merlot, the least cool, least sexy, and the most unfairly slandered grape in all of California (lookin’ at you Paul Giamatti). It’s been 16 years since the film Sideways was released and destroyed Merlot’s reputation for a whole generation of drinkers. All of a sudden, everyone hated Merlot. The shameful irony is that the joke behind the famous “I’m not drinking Merlot” scene went over everyone’s head. Giamatti’s character’s favorite wine is Chateau Cheval Blanc. A Merlot! What was meant to be a joke on the snobby wine drinker who assumed they understood more about wine than they really did became a slanderous meme. All the worse for Merlot’s value, which literally tanked because of this film. Laura wants to make Merlot cool again and Kitsune is where it starts. Kitsune is an 85/15 blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from organic vineyards in Sonoma County. The style is restrained and old-school, though distinctly Californian, without the heavy hand of oak or ego corrupting the expression of the fruit. As she says, it’s refined, but not too pushy.
Inconnu Cuvee Pierre
Inconnu 2017 Cuvee Pierre
What all the Merlot haters out there seem to forget is that it is one of Bordeaux’s noble grapes. Some of the world’s most prized, sought-after, fought over, and expensive bottles are made from it. While Cabernet may be king on the Left Bank of the Gironde river in Bordeaux, on the Right Bank, Merlot reigns. Cuvee Pierre is modeled on the wines of Pomerol, one of the Left Bank’s most prestigious appellations. Pomerol’s identity comes from its distinctive density of fruit, its powerful aromatics, and its velvet-like tannins. Like a great Pomerol, Cuvee Pierre is undeniably attractive and pleasurable to drink, however don’t be fooled in thinking of this wine as a mere imitator of a classic French region. Like all of Laura’s wines, Cuvee Pierre is distinctively, notably, and unashamedly Californian. The influences of the persistent sun, the temperate climate, the warm growing season, the unique cooling influence of the Pacific Ocean, and the extreme geological diversity of California mean everything to the identity of this wine. From where we’re sitting, we hope that more winemakers in the Pacific Northwest follow in this trajectory and once and for all can leave the New French Oak, the excessive maceration, and the long hang times behind and let their true terroir shine through.
A old-vine Mourvedre vineyard in Contra Costa County.