2014 Benoni Pinot Noir Petits Grains Arroyo Grande Valley

BB-Size Berries in 95-98pt Arroyo Grande

As many have you have requested, finally, the story behind “Benoni.”

Four years ago, just after the last Pinot Noir clusters were picked, we received a call from an old friend — an old friend who happens to own two of California’s most celebrated Pinot Noir vineyards. The 2012 harvest, he explained, was extraordinary both quantitatively and qualitatively. Sugars measured a luscious 24 Brix even as acids remained firm. Even better, in lieu of bringing in the normal 2 tons per acre, the family had harvested nearly 3.5. “I guess you could say,” he chuckled, “we’re playing with the house’s money!”

Then the maker of six 95- to 98-point estate-grown Pinot Noirs in the last seven years made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. It went something like this:

If WineAccess agreed to pay half the finished-wine cost immediately and the other half on delivery, the winery would custom-craft 1,000 cases of Pinot Noir from barrels otherwise ticketed for the family’s estate-bottled brand. We cut the deal on the spot. The new brand, designed exclusively for WineAccess, was called “Benoni” — after the favored chess defense of the winemaker.

Our timing couldn’t have been better. The 2012 growing season was the first of three consecutive near-perfect vintages. In each, these deep-rooted Pinot Noir vines, many planted in the early 1980s, quenched their thirst on water reserves deep in the Arroyo Grande substrata. If the 2012 Benoni Pinot Noirs were the broadest and juiciest of the bunch and the 2013 the most finely structured, it would be the 2014s that are far and away the darkest in color, the most intensely concentrated and lavishly opulent. Here’s why.

2014 was the third year in a row in which barely a drop of rain fell between June and the mid-August harvest. A mild winter and warm spring made for early bud break and flowering. While yields remained copious, they were 20% smaller than in 2012. The combination of hydric stress and fewer berries competing for the same nutrients pushed the envelope on concentration like never before in the 30-year history of the estate. On one highly sought-after parcel, tight-fisted clusters were strewn with tiny berries, many of them sweet and seedless — “no bigger,” our friend told us, “than the tip of a baby’s finger.”

The 2014 Benoni Pinot Noir drawn from those BB-sized grapes was aptly named “Petits Grains.”

The 2014 Benoni Pinot Noir “Petits Grains” is drawn from two of the most prized Pinot Noir vineyards on the coast — parcels that have given birth to six 95- to 98-point wines in the last seven vintages. Deep, dark ruby to the rim. Gorgeous aromatically, featuring a mix of black raspberry, black cherry, plum, a touch of violet and sweet spice. Rich and silken on the attack, filled with black raspberry, kirsch, and black cherry preserves. Despite the extraordinary opulence of the vintage, as always at this truly world-class estate, this monumental 2014 shows no sign whatsoever of overripeness. Drink now-2020.

50 cases. $17.50 today on WineAccess. Compared to twice that price under the winery’s only label. Not to be missed by Pinot Noir enthusiasts or collectors looking for an irresistible “house” wine.

P.S. Due to the small size of the 2015 harvest, there will be no Benoni Pinot Noir in 2015.

• ABV 13.80%
• Enjoy right away
• % Pinot Noir