Birichino Chenin Blanc Jurassic Park 2022

There’s lots of Chenin between here and Santa Barbara, but there is good reason to traverse all those miles. Of all the sites with which the winery works, Jurassic Park, planted on its own roots on quartz sand atop lime- stone in the late 1970s exhibits the most vintage variation, and small variations create very strong signals in the wine. Some years lean toward the lithe and appley; some towards the exotic; some toward the saline and chalky.

If there’s anything Jurassic Park has proven, it’s that eventually all of the elements of which Chenin Blanc is capable eventually show up, while still allowing each vintage to carry its particular marker. As always, this wine fermented in stainless without inoculation, and was aged until the following Spring in 8 stainless and 2 neutral French oak barrels.