Broc Cellars

Two new wines at Broc Cellars Sunday

2012 "Central Coast" Cabernet Franc. Oh. My. God. Textbook "simple" Cab Franc! Spot on varietal character, with violets and earth and green pepper and savory notes. Fantastic QPR at $18 (wine club price)

2013 Grenaches (Gris and Rouge) Santa Barbara County. Another winter. Hint of funk, strawberry and white pepper. Delicious with pork tacos that night!

[Jenise]

New name to me, Broc. Where are they located?

Broc Cellars is a winery located in Berkeley. This is the project of Chris Brockway, who is originally from Omaha and did a wine dinner with us a few years ago. Such a nice guy and one of the best in restrained, terrior driven CA wine that won't break the bank. He gets fruit from a number of locations and plays with a lot of different grape varieties, including Syrah, Cab Franc, Zinfandel, Carignane, Picpoul, Counoise, etc. He used to make wine for the Antic Wine Company label and Broadside as well.

Joy: I had no idea Chris was from Omaha! I would echo your comments...he is a very mellow guy despite some pretty impressive press he is getting now (Decanter Magazine, New York Times, etc.)

There is a nice little cluster of wineries in the (once?) industrial corner of Berkeley (Fifth and Gilman) . Donkey and Goat is two doors down.. I keep mentioning this name, but Lusu Cellars is an impressive project over on Camelia Street (and ENO Cellars...great stuff).

Oddly enough, this cluster of "natural" Berkeley wineries ALL released killer Grenache-based wines this year! The Lusu Cellars one might be my favorite if I HAD to pick, but all were delicious.

Joy: I had no idea Chris was from Omaha! I would echo your comments...he is a very mellow guy despite some pretty impressive press he is getting now (Decanter Magazine, New York Times, etc.)

There is a nice little cluster of wineries in the (once?) industrial corner of Berkeley (Fifth and Gilman) . Donkey and Goat is two doors down.. I keep mentioning this name, but Lusu Cellars is an impressive project over on Camelia Street (and ENO Cellars...great stuff).

Oddly enough, this cluster of "natural" Berkeley wineries ALL released killer Grenache-based wines this year! The Lusu Cellars one might be my favorite if I HAD to pick, but all were delicious.

Will have to check these out! We don't get all the Broc wines here in NE, but hopefully will get a chance to try the new Grenache soon.

What a coincidence, we had the Luna Matta, Mourvedre, 2011 on Sunday and it was one of the more interesting wines I've had recently. Funky, meaty and exotic.

"Exotic". That is a good descriptive word for Broc Wines!

Have to admit that conventional "Napa" wines do it for me less than they once did when compared to the outliers like Broc and Lusu and (controversially) Donkey and Goat

(although I have always sorta liked funky wines)

We had two 2012 Broc wines recently.
The Grenache was very good but the Cabernet Franc seemed sweet and simple. I think wines acquired through the PA state system tend to be more variable.

[Jenise]

We had two 2012 Broc wines recently.
The Grenache was very good but the Cabernet Franc seemed sweet and simple. I think wines acquired through the PA state system tend to be more variable.

Thomas, you mean there are some chain of custody issues, like storage?

Yes

Hm. Odd. Did not get the "sweet" notes on the Cab Franc. I mean, plenty of fruit, but also floral and pepper notes.

There is bottle variation in "natural" wines, and as the wine was recently released, I wonder if temperature control was that big of an issue???

Are you referring to the whole cluster Cab Franc? The last thing I would call that wine is sweet, as it is very stemmy and peppery with the fruit being almost an afterthought.

Are you referring to the whole cluster Cab Franc? The last thing I would call that wine is sweet, as it is very stemmy and peppery with the fruit being almost an afterthought.

This sounds much closer to the wine I tasted.

Now...Chris made a carbonic Cab Franc one year that WAS quite sweet and simple. I wonder if this is what he had in Pennsylvania, because the whole cluster was just released this month!

That would make sense. I was less fond of that earlier version.

Sounds like it was the carbonic version, I didn't take notes or a photo of the label.

I have had the carbonic Carignane, which is awesome, but didn't know he did a Cab Franc version. The last whole cluster Cab Franc I tried from Broc was the 2010, which was phenomenal. I believe it was his first effort - we featured it at a wine dinner and people went nuts for it.

Part of my negative impression was influenced by how good the Grenache was on the previous night.