Wine of the week: Amapola Creek, 2016 Sonoma Valley Vineyard Estate Grenache

The best winemakers are painstakingly precise and yet when it comes to Mother Nature, they’re willing to let go of their numbers and formulas and facts. They know the best winemaking can happen when Mother Nature calls the shots.

Vintner Richard Arrowood has this yin-yang temperament. In a recent Press Democrat tasting, his Amapola Creek, 2016 Sonoma Valley Vineyard Estate Grenache was a standout. The grenache, at $48, was complex with layered tangy red fruit - strawberry, raspberry and cherry. Its crisp, upfront acid gives it great balance. The elegant grenache has a refreshing quench, which makes it a tasty food wine. It’s absolutely striking.

“I have a basic need to follow through with a project, having a bit of obsessive compulsive craziness inside that won’t let me take a laissez-faire attitude on some facets of winemaking,” Arrowood said. “Yet on some other facets of enology, you need to let nature take her course and not try to influence the outcome too much.”

Grenache, Arrowood said, flourishes on his Sonoma Valley property, cultivating rich structured wines with round supple tannins.

“I’m not sure how I would describe our house style other than balanced,” Arrowood said. “Fruit to tannin ratios are critical to achieve aromatics, mouthfeel and flavor profile.”

Grenache continues to be under the radar for many, Arrowood said.

“Most people don’t know that grenache is the grape of some of the world’s finest wines,” Arrowood explained. “Examples include southern Rhone’s great vintages of Chateauneuf-du Pape, and in Spain’s Rioja region, it’s known as garnacha. Now it’s being planted more and more in the temperate regions of the North Coast of California.”

Arrowood, 72, grew up in Santa Rosa and has spent most of his life in Sonoma County. He began his winemaking career in 1965 at Korbel Winery and soon made a name for himself at Chateau St. Jean making stellar chardonnay, along with an eclectic line-up of wines - white and red.

Arrowood and wife, Alis, founded their namesake winery in 1986, ultimately selling it to Kendall-Jackson in 2006. While Arrowood stayed on as winemaker, he ultimately resigned in 2010 to focus his full attention on Amapola Creek, his boutique winery along Highway 12 on the outskirts of the town of Sonoma.

The vintner said what sets his brand apart is that it’s organically farmed and the yields are small.

“We’re looking for intense flavors, balanced tannins and complexity,” Arrowood said, “And that won’t happen with excessively high yields.”

Peg Melnik can be reached at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5310.