Bonny Doon 2013 Vin Gris Tuilé, Central Coast

Looking for an offbeat wine? We think we have just the thing for you.

A New One On Me

During a recent cookout, I opened up a chilled bottle of Bonny Doon’s Vin Gris Tuilé. I didn’t know quite what to expect – I thought a rosé. Friend Austin Beeman had hinted that this was a truly special wine, but what poured from the brown bottle was unlike anything I’d seen before.

Most rosé are in the salmon to light orange color range. The Vin Gris Tuilé was a lurid amber-orange. The wine is unfiltered, so it also had a mysterious cloudy look.

Score One For The Bad Boy

Randall Grahm is a wine maverick, who was an early advocate of Rhone varieties in California. In fact, the Rhoneranger asteroid discovered by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona was so named in his honor. His current project is the Popelouchum Vineyard, where he intends to breed 10,000 new grape varieties and blend them together to create a New World Grand Cru.

He can’t resist coloring outside the lines. The Vin Gris Tuilé is a “brick” wine, earning that title by its color. It is a blend of Grenache, Mourvedre, Roussane, Cinsault, Carignane and Grenache Blanc. The wine is solarized, by sitting outside in the sun in a glass demijohn for nine months.

The result is a wine with a nutty, unique flavor – unlike almost any still wine you’ve ever tasted. The sun has certainly changed it (through oxidation) and there is a distinct earthiness too. Even more odd is the striking flavor of… curry. Yes, that’s right. During our cookout, we were eating barbecue chicken. I enjoyed the wine, which should be chilled – but the rest of the group was somewhat puzzled by it.

I think this would make a great pairing with Indian food. The folks at Bonny Doon also suggest Mediterranean cuisine.

For a mere $26 SRP, here is your opportunity to walk on the wild side with one of the most off-the-wall wines you’ll ever taste.