Birichino

Birichino – a stunning Malvasia from California

Winemaker Alex Krause tells us all about it:

“A bit of background - John Locke and I worked together for 17 years at Bonny Doon, making the first vintages of Malvasia Bianca, Muscat Vin de Glaciere, Riesling, and later the red wines.

Birichino was basically a chance to bring back a favorite wine, and of course an excuse to make bad puns, try lots of different wines, eat out, bring back cheese from all over the world and pretend that we're actually doing important work.

It's mostly about eating, really, and making and drinking wine just goes part and parcel along with that. And enjoying the company of an old friend, for me.

Along the way, if we can impart a sense of discovery and excitement about wine to a broad swath of people while we're at it, that's great! We started with what we love, want to make wine that is distinctive, and present it (hopefully) in a way that is fun, engaging, and not intimidating, and then hope that people will appreciate what we do. So far it seems to be working - we sold out of the first vintage 3 months ago!

When we started Birichino, we also wanted to make sure we kept a really good balance of work, family, travel, too, and that management meetings should be as often as possible mountain bike rides in the Santa Cruz mountains. We also make a promise to ourselves to only work with importers and distributors we had enjoyed working with as life is too short to do otherwise. So far so good, there, too.

About the name- Birichino- biri-kino. We wanted something Italian, and along the lines of the locksmiths here that add additional AAAs onto their names to be the first listed in the telephone directory, I wanted a name that began with A or B. We tried on a few - Alluce was a favorite, meaning Big Toe, but seeming to evoke lightness and air in English. We wanted something with that playfulness, as we are so inclined ourselves, though some things we are deadly serious about. We hit on Birichino, meaning naughty, mischievous partly for the surprising, slightly racy character of the wine that leads you on to thinking sweet, and delivers something else entirely. And who doesn't consider themselves just a little bit naughty, after all?

About the variety- it's an ancient variety, and as far as we can tell, worked its way over from the Greek city of Monemvassia (meaning one entrance, Malvasia a corruption of Monemvassia) to Italy, and thence to America in the boots of the naughty Italian immigrant who smuggled it into California years ago.

Our particular clone of Malvasia is from southern Italy, Calabria, specifically, which had a long established Greek culture and history before the Roman Empire came on the scene. Among many other things, Calabria is famous for the remains of the ancient city of Sybaris, founded in the 7th Century B.C. by the Achaeans, which became proverbial for its luxury (hence our word sybaritic) but was destroyed in 5th C BC by the people of Croton. They knew how to have a good time, certainly, and were more than a little "birichino"!

It's still used as a variety in Madeira, and in Italy in the north in Asti, and also seen in Vin Santo, and in the south, and everywhere in between but generally is disappearing in favor of more fashionable and productive grape varieties. And very very few of the clones I've tried of Malvsia Bianca form Italy have anywhere near the incredible perfume and aromatics of this one.

John Locke, in addition to being a good friend, talented winemaker (who also worked a vintage at Domaine Ostertag in Alsace, and made wine in India for a couple of years), is also a GREAT cook and here are some dishes he made at his house that I photographed (photography being something I love to do) Simply sautéed scallops (as the label suggests!) with a micro green salad, sautéed in a little bit of butter.

Then mussels in a saffron broth with a little bit of parsley, shallot. Amazing.

And lastly the lemon rosemary roasted chicken. All were fantastic with the Malvasia Bianca, and I think help illustrate the versatility of foods that shine with it.

The roasted chicken, even with a lovely rich gravy we made from pan juices, was livened up, lightened by the crisp, citrusy profile of the malvasia. The Malvasia of course DOES go well with Asian fare of all sorts - especially lemongrass, ginger-infused fare, sushi and sashimi etc but I fear it gets pigeonholed a bit - it's also great with much simpler dishes where one could go with something that either complements or contrasts with the flavor profile. Sharp goat's or sheep's milk cheeses sing with it, too, in salads or incorporated into appetisers or pasta courses, for example.

We recently had the wine in Quebec with a braised lamb shank and caramelised onions and one would've thought something much richer, red, would've been the thing, but in fact it provided that foil to the weight of richer sauces, meats, and was great. Not something I would've come up with myself, but it really worked. I recall Jancis (Robinson) saying something akin to the fact that while there may well be the perfect wine to match with a specific dish, she didn't have time to obsess about that.

Re some of the other photos - there are a pair of the vineyard in fog and in bright sunlight that show the dramatic effect of the cool Monterey Bay on our climate up in the foothills of the Santa Lucia range. That fog is really essential to preserving the natural freshness, vibrancy and perfume we have in our malvasia (and our careful, delicate handling of the fruit once we pick it and start fermentation.)

And there is one of Jack, the dog, who often goes wild boar hunting with the vineyard manager. Ever since a friend of William Randolph Hearst, George Moore, went on a boar-hunting expedition in Belgium, he arranged to have some live boars brought back to amuse himself in California. Originally from the Ural mountains, Hearst and Moore couldn't hunt them fast enough, and the population exploded and interbred with the domesticated pigs and they have become the bane of vineyards statewide.

What else - there's one photo of my daughter testing out the capacity of one of our case boxes, and its tensile strength!”

Alex Krause, Birichino

Download a pdf about Birichino Malvasia Bianca 2008

Watch Birichino Malvasia Bianca being tasted