La Clarine Farm "B-Sides" 2019

La Clarine Farm's version of a “weekday wine” - it is primarily composed of Syrah (50%), Zinfandel (15%) and Grenache (10%), the blend also includes Barbera (8%), Mourvèdre (8%), Counoise(8%), and even a smidgen of Nebbiolo (1%). Because of its diverse makeup, the wine was picked over a number of weeks. Each lot was fermented separately, and blend was constructed towards the end of the harvest season. Every grape variety was whole cluster fermented in open top tanks, and the final blend was aged for a year entirely in tank. The wine then sat in bottle 6 months before release.

Founded in 2001, La Clarine Farm has been farmed with totally biodynamic principles and was even certified for a while. Most recently, though, Beckmeyer has moved on to an even more do-nothing approach described by Japanese philosopher-farmer Manosoba Fukuoka. It still encompasses the ideas of biodynamic farming but without the belief that farmers need to always ‘do’ things to make the plants grow. With production rarely exceeding 70 cases of any one wine, La Clarine Farms is a testament to the surprises you can find in wines simply marked ‘domestic’.