Review: Breaking Bread Natural Reds

 There's been a new style of red trending in California, and it's refreshing, literally and figuratively. For too long, the U.S. has been almost devoid of lighter-weight red wines. There are a couple of really nice examples, like J. Lohr's 'Wildflower' Valdiguie, or from Oregon, Terry and Sue Brandborg's Pinot Noir Nouveau.

These days there's a wave of Beaujolais-inspired red wines that are coming to market, mostly in small batches, but it's definitely a trend - I confirmed that on a recent visit to one of my local Oakland retailers, Minimo, a wine shop at Jack London Square.

Here's the gist of the trend: winemakers are picking grapes relatively early for lower alcohol levels (but trying to avoid tough green flavors). Then they ferment whole clusters to preserve bright fruit flavors in a fermentation that largely takes place without a lot of oxygen exposure.

This is sometimes referred to as carbonic maceration, and it's a technique used in Beaujolais and some other areas to make very fruity, juicy, usually relatively inexpensive reds. It usually involves limiting oxygen ingress to the fermentation process, and in its extreme forms, CO2 is actually pumped into the tanks of whole clusters for a couple of days, after which the grapes start fermenting and break apart, then are crushed and the fermentation finishes with more oxygen. That is what I think of as proper carbonic maceration. Otherwise I would just call it whole cluster or whole berry fermentation when you don't crush the grapes prior to fermentation.

I think this is a pretty cool trend, especially if it is done right. With summer approaching, the idea of bright, lighter, chillable red wines genuinely appeals to me. The potential pitfall is serious though... Wines made this way often taste 'samey,' in that they are all fruity, grapey and maybe even smell like bubblegum and banana. So, in that way, you're making something that has a lot of gut level appeal, but that cannot ever really be great, because you're masking any kind of sense of place or personality.  I wanna see where this goes, though.

Esther Mobley wrote a great piece about this exact topic for the San Francisco Chronicle. She nailed this conflict of charm and genericness.

This Breaking Bread brand also uses native yeast, the yeast that comes in with the grapes, and doesn't add a cultivated yeast. I understand that sulfuring is also minimal, so I can see how these wines are marketable as 'natural wines,' a topic that deserves microscopic examination and a good dose of skepticism. 

I think these fresh California wines are well worth trying, especially this summer. See if you like them. If you don't, there's always Beaujolais...

Sorry, terrible picture, but you get the gist...

Breaking Bread 2018 Zinfandel Redwood Valley, Mendocino County ($25) Purplish and just translucent, the nose is a little bit shy and slow to express itself until it warms up a bit. There's a slightly smoky, ashy note that makes me wonder if this wine might have a bit of smoke taint. In the mouth, it's lovely - bright, juicy, and lively with pretty blueberry and raspberry notes and great acidity. Chilling it down a bit definitely emphasizes the freshness of the wine. I think the autumn fires might have affected the fruit a bit, but I appreciate the style, and I look forward to having more wines like this in the future. (87 Points)

Breaking Bread 2018 Grenache Redwood Valley, Mendocino County ($25) Served slightly chilled it's quite charming. Grenache takes to this style well. Harvesting the grapes early and whole cluster fermentation brings out a bright, juicy blueberry-inflected side to this variety. Too often it is made in a sappy, overripe, heavy style in California. Here we see the light, fresh, energetic side of Grenache. This one really clicks for me. (89 Points)