I worked at Bonny Doon Vineyard when I was in college — it was my dream job — I loved working there and I loved and admired Randall. I had never witnessed anyone throw caution to the wind such ease — and be so consumed with their passion — it was infectious and I thought I was the luckiest person in the world to have that job. It wasn’t much of a paycheck — but it was an experience and I got 50 percent off as much of the wine as I could buy.
Randall has always stayed true to his own vision, his own mad view of the wine world. He didn’t create wines for Parker — he actually mocked Parker — and perhaps paid a price, as Parker has always been less than enthusiastic about Randall’s wines (and not always without reason). But that is just Randall being Randall — and you have to admire him doing things how he wants and being true to his own creative spirit. The guy has some cajones…
My experience at BDV opened my mind and palate to the world of wine — and for that I will always be grateful. To this day, I love all things Bonny Doon — the hits and the misses. There are few sure things with wine — and there is something to find in the hits, near hits, near misses and misses — all have value.
Cigare Volant is usually a hit — though it is hard to pay about $30 a bottle now when there are much better values available. I prefer to drink these wines (all of BDV’s wines for that matter) within 3-4 years of release. A few months ago I had a bottle of 1996 Cigare and was a bit disappointed. Tonight, the 1998 is off to better start, I decanted it a number of times, but is showing some serious funk on the nose and also showing it’s age in the glass. It’s a bit better on the palate — but there just isn’t much fruit. The wine is 14.5% alcohol — and it is quite hot on the nose. It’s shows some cherry, rhubarb and light plum in the mouth — with a nice finish, a little on the thin side. This vintage was 47% Grenache, 37% Syrah and the remainder was Mourvedre.
Le Cigare was also one of the first great California GSMs.
It will be interesting to see how this opens up over the course of the evening — it has been in the bottle for almost 10 years, so it would take a little encouragement to get me to strut my stuff after being put down for that amount of time.
I’ll keep my DEWN membership and keep some BDV wines on hand (at least as long as Randall continues to be involved and/or they stay true to his tune)…..but my experiences tell me that patience doesn’t yield many benefits with these wines. I will drink them while they are in their youth.
