People-Pleasing but Complex Grenache From a Boutique Central Coast Winery

Today’s Story: Archium Cellars

Archium Cellars is a relatively young passion project of Ian Sergy and Zach Jarosz, established in 2011 with a focus on Rhône varieties in the Central Coast of California. Though both Ian and Zach have backgrounds in the entertainment industry, travels throughout California wine country and Europe opened their eyes to the world of wines and the complexities that Rhône varieties can provide. When they realized they didn’t need to own their own vines to craft quality wines, they ventured into the Central Coast to create Archium. Though nowadays Archium has a small estate vineyard in Ventura County, they source most of their fruit from the Santa Ynez Valley and produce their wines at facilities in Buellton. The Thompson Vineyard provides Grenache and Mourvèdre while the Shokrian Vineyard provides Syrah, with both vineyards organically and dry-farmed with low-yielding vines.

Today’s Wine: 2014 Haven Grenache

100% Grenache; 14.5% ABV

The 2014 Haven Grenache is translucent medium garnet in color. I decanted this for about 45 minutes to an hour, helping the wine blossom as it is still fairly youthful. The nose is of medium (+) intensity, showcasing aromas of strawberry jam, raspberry, red plum, licorice, rose, leather, dried herbs, rocky earth, clove, coffee grounds, and a hint of oak that eventually blows off. Meanwhile on the palate, which is of medium intensity, I get notes of red cherry, stemmy strawberry, red plum, blood orange, sweet tobacco, charred green herbs, clove, cola, and white pepper. This dry red is medium- to full-bodied with medium (+) acidity, medium tannins, high alcohol, and a medium length finish. Typically 30 or fewer cases produced.

Price: $40 (2016 vintage on sale on winery website for $19). I think this is steep at the $40 level on a value perspective, perhaps why you can find the current vintage for about $19 on the winery website. It fits into the more people-pleasing camp for me in the ripeness of fruit, though it is surprisingly complex based on my expectations.