Wines of Terroir.
Popelouchum (pope-loh-SHOOM): a Mutsun word meaning paradise.
This 415 acre estate was purchased by Randall Grahm in 2011. Always a work in progress, Grahm is attempting what no vigneron has every attempted: to propogate 10,000 new grape varieties, from disease-resistant progenitors, with the aim of a) identifying one or more new “genius” grape varieties, and b) employing a radical new methodology for creating complexity in wine (the elucidation of terroir) by creating a highly diverse population in a vineyard (every variety being genetically distinct from the other).
Along with plantings of Pinot Noir, Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris are more uncommon ownrooted varietals of Picolit and Ruché. The long term vision being one of both simplicity and great complexity: a property which will produce wine of distinction, as well as a destination to host thinkers, leaders, contemporaries and wine enthusiasts - an epicenter of a new wine community.
If you have a theory about something, keep testing it and putting it to proof; it will probably need discarding eventually.
-Andrew Jefford
What is Popelouchum?
Popelouchum is a singularly compelling 410 acre property, located just outside the town of San Juan Bautista in San Benito County, California, directly abutting the San Andreas Fault. It is noteworthy for its unique geology and pedology, possessing no fewer than four distinctive, “strong” and unique soil types or more broadly, terroirs.[1] “Popelouchum'' is the name the indigenous Mutsun tribe of the San Juan Bautista area gave to their land; an alternative translation of the term is reported to be “Paradise” and that descriptor is particularly apt. Randall Grahm, founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, purchased the property in 2012 with the intention of creating a mixed-use, sustainable/regenerative farm, focused on growing the most distinctive and expressive grapes suitable for production of true vins de terroir, or wines of place. He has successfully grown a number of perennial trees (olives, apples, pears, quince) and seasonal row crops as well on the site.
How does this project help the world?
For more or less the last 1500 years Vitis vinifera (European) vines have been propagated vegetatively, giving them scant opportunity to genetically alter and thus potentially adapt to changing growing conditions - to new disease and/or climatic pressure. The grape breeding project at Popelouchum consists of two approaches: the unorthodox practice of “self-crossing, and the more traditional practice of breeding from disparate lineages with the intention of discovering/creating new and unique germplasm with salutary organoleptic and agronomic attributes. For the “traditional” breeding part of the project, we hope (rather quixotically) to create 10,000 new grape varieties, offering the wine industry a vast amount of new germplasm, useful both in identifying new and distinctive varieties, as well as serving as a strategy for producing a true and non-replicable vin de terroir. [2] Lastly, the mastery of dry-farmed or minimal irrigation cultivation of named grape varieties using innovative farming techniques will be an exemplary model of sustainable viticulture in California as resources (principally water) become increasingly constrained.
Our Grapes (for the moment) and What’s ahead?
Currently planted (and modestly producing) are the minimally irrigated, organically farmed grape varieties, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Pinot Noir, Grenache Noir, Cinsault, Tibouren, Ruchè, and Furmint. Coming into production perhaps as soon as vintage 2025 (if the wild turkeys do not have their way with the tastiest bunches) we have a block of genetically diverse self-crossed white variants of Sérine as well as recent plantings of red variants of self-crossed Sérine, [3] as well as proper Sérine, Roussanne and Furmint. In development, we’re looking at Cornalin, Nebbiolo Rosé, Schioppettino, Rossese Bianco(!), Timorasso, Aligoté and of course our ambitious crosses of Ciliegiolo x Picolit.
Unique Viticultural Practices
The vast majority of our vines are head-trained or “en goblet,” as they are called in France, a natural and beautiful three-dimensional form, providing the plants an optimal level of shade and sunlight. To ensure greater levels of flavor intensity and age-worthiness as well as to push the grapes to ripeness in our challenging cool and windy climat, we keep irrigation at an absolute minimum and yields are rigorously limited. Further, while we are not yet organically certified, we practice organic as well as “no-till” farming. We’ve planted any number of fruit trees and other companion plants within the vineyard to enhance biotic diversity. The unique use of biochar at Popelouchum amplifies the innate contribution of soil characteristics by fostering the prolific establishment of symbiotic soil biota.
Self-crossing of vines?
This somewhat esoteric practice of self-crossing is frowned upon by some and heralded by others, [4] allows grapes (in our case, Sérine, Tibouren and Pignolo), to self-pollinate and by collecting and germinating the resulting seeds, results in a new and genetically distinctive seedling, some sharing similar traits to its parent, others with the expression of latent or recessive characteristics. [5] This was initially done with the rather quixotic aim of identifying the most expressive and best adapted biotypes to the site, as well as seeking to correct some of the known compromising issues (chiefly virus-related) affecting the existing cultivars. [6] But along the way, we have come to believe that there is a perhaps even more interesting application of self-crossing, i.e. the opportunity to fashion a field blend of genetically heterodox biotypes, siblings from the same parent, as it were, each a little different. It is our expectation that this strategy may likely result in levels of vinous complexity unachievable through any other means. By subduing “pure” varietal expression, we believe we are allowing for a greater opportunity for the grapes to express soil and site characteristics, the uniqueness of our terroir. We believe that the “best” clone of a given variety may in fact be a composite of multiple biotypes. [7] In fact, we will soon prove (or disprove) this hypothesis with our side-by-side plantations of “proper” Sérine and a block of “mixed self-crossed red Sérine biotypes.”
10,000 New Varieties?
The most ambitious part of the project is the “traditional” breeding of 10,000 new grape varieties. The selected “parents” of the breeding project are Ciliegiolo and Picolit. Each genetically heterodox block of grapes will be planted on three different “strong” terroirs, each approximately a two acre plot. This unique strategy strongly de-emphasizes varietal character, the better to allow the expression of emergent soil characteristics and the creation of viticultural complexity and nuance that could not be achieved any other way. In this effort, we hope to perhaps also identify some new varieties with useful agronomic characteristics - disease resistance, climatic resilience and non-trivially, superior or unique flavor attributes.
Unique Winemaking Practices
Popelouchum is an extraordinarily special place to grow grapes; I hope we have or can soon establish that datum without fear of contradiction. The growing conditions of the site - reliable winds most every afternoon in the growing season and brisk nighttime temperatures - give us grapes and resultant wines with unusually high levels of acidity and preternaturally low pHs. While creating some unique challenges - how the hell are we ever going to get this to undergo malolactic fermentation? - it also furnishes the opportunity to engage in some very clever cellar practice. In virtually every instance, we are apt to air-dry our red grapes, post-harvest, for typically 3-5 days, to accelerate the lignification of the stems with modest boost in potential alcohol. In so doing, we are able to utilize a high percentage if not a total retention of stems without resultant “stemminess” or vegetal character. In this step, we harvest the grapes, only one layer in height, in small yellow lug boxes, [8] known by the term of art as “FYBs.” We’ll will spray a non-saccharomyces yeast on the grapes to act as a bioprotectant, preventing early acetification of the fruit, and conveniently obviating the need for an early SO2 addition. When the stems have mostly turned from green to brown, we gently foot-stomp them to initiate the fermentation, typically with indigenous yeast. The exceptionally low pHs of the fruit allow us to bring up the wine with minimal levels of SO2, and the wines, having completed malolactic fermentation, are bottled without filtration. These practices, in sum, give us wines that are capable of great evolution and longevity.
[1] We intend to petition for a unique AVA (American Viticultural Area) for the delimited area surrounding the farm property. Preliminary geological studies have been undertaken to that end and are quite encouraging.
[2] The creation of new germplasm carries with it the great possibility of Nature arriving at a solution to a problem that has vexed a human being. But, apart from the unalloyed agronomic benefit of new germplasm, the aesthetic frisson of a new and unique way to consider what a wine might be about - a change in Gestalt that considers the site itself to be the protagonist rather than the grapes that are grown thereof - is of incalculable benefit.
[3] The subject of what exactly is Sérine is a bit controversial. Nominally, it is the name that has historically been used in Côte-Rôtie for a selection that is phenotypically different than Syrah - smaller, tighter bunches, later ripening, higher in acidity, somewhat more peppery in aroma and (tragically), somewhat more prone to Syrah Decline. (To confuse matters further, it is referred to as “Petite Syrah” in Hermitage, no relation whatsoever, of course, to what is called “Petite Sirah” in California and elsewhere.) One strong hypothesis is that “Sérine” is in fact identical to Syrah, but for the presence of a relatively benign Red Globe Grape Virus, which alters its phenotype. Withal, we’ve observed that all things being equal, Sérine yields incredibly tasty fruit at Popelouchum.
[4] You see the expression of recessive genes, which typically carry less than favorable characteristics, and as a result one kisses a number of vitaceous frogs, as it were, before finding a prince or princess.
[5] Most notably evinced in our case of finding approximately 25% of the offspring of self-crossed Sérine to be white grapes, due to the fact that a parent of Sérine (or Syrah) is Mondeuse Blanche. (Mendel was right!)
[6] Many viruses can debilitate grape varieties, but in the self-crossing process the virus is not transmitted to the progeny, and the particular debilitating issue (at least in some selections) will disappear in a couple of generations.
[7] We have successfully identified 65 white variants of self-crossed Sérine seedlings and have planted in 2023 approximately two acres of “mixed whites” reflecting that mix. Each variant is slightly different from the other; some are spicier/more peppery, others more floral. We have high hopes that this will produce a wine of unique complexity. A similar block of approximately 60 self-crossed red variants has been planted Winter 2024/25 and the Tibouren self-crosses continue to be studied. (It is crucial that we establish that these emergent biotypes are in fact fruitful and have agronomic utility. “Male” offspring, for example, are sterile and “female” biotypes are likely somewhat less fruitful than the typical hermaphrodite issue.