If you drink the right Grenache, you know the combination of power and pretty that leaves an indelible impression. I've been on a Rhone kick of late (blame the super cold weather in Portland) and Chad's Grenache hit all the right spots. The Grenache from Applegate Valley's Soloro Vineyard was planted in 2007 using the plant material from Chateauneuf du Pape's famed Chateau du Beaucastel (by way of California's Tablas Creek). It's the right combination of stressed vines, rocky soil, location and elevation, vintage, and Chad's winemaking: this is outstanding.
Chad Stock's Minimus wines are driven by equal parts intuition, experience, technique, process, and guts. Minimus wines are divided in two series: varietal-based (Gruner Veltliner, Grenache, etc.) and numerical-based (#19 Phantom Limb, for example). As Chad describes it, the beauty of the numerical series is to apply what he learns through the winemaking process to continually make better wines. - Marcus