2019 BICHI "ROSA" TECATE ROSE

2019 BICHI "ROSA" TECATE ROSE, GUADALUPE VALLEY, BAJA, MEXICO. Unknown varietal - possibly Dolcetto or Carignan. (Organic/Biodynamic)

Bichi "Rosa" comes from a dry-farmed 20ha vineyard comprised of a mysterious grape variety that remains unidentified. The farmer says it could be Dolcetto, the Te?llez family thinks maybe Carin?ena due to it's sharp acidity, no one is quite sure and perhaps it doesn't really matter as this wine shows its place beautifully. The head-pruned, own-rooted vines are planted close to the Pacific Ocean in the area of San Antonio de las Minas in Ensenada, Baja Norte. The grapes were harvested by hand, de-stemmed and fermented and raised in steel tank, then bottled without fining or filtration and only 20 ppm of added SO2. This is a refreshing Pacific-inflected rose? wine, perfect for Baja-style fish tacos, camarones a la plancha, or just sharing with friends on the patio.

Based at the Téllez family ranch in Tecate, just over the border from California, Bichi farms 10 hectares of their own Tecate vineyards biodynamically and collaborates with a growing family of organic farmers working vineyard land in Tecate and around Valle de Guadalupe.

The Spanish conquistadors first planted vines in Mexico in the 1500’s, pre-dating vine growing in both Chile and Argentina. About 90% of Mexico’s wine is produced in Valle de Guadalupe, with many of the oldest vineyards centered around Tecate, very close to the U.S. border.

The Téllez family moved to Baja from neighboring Sonora (hence the name Bichi, which means “naked” in the Sonoran dialect) in the early 1970’s. Jair is a trained chef who opened his first restaurant in 1999: the pioneering farm-to-table Laja in the Guadalupe Valley. With the Mexico City additions of MeroToro and Amaya (offering the country’s first all-natural wine list), Jair is now one of Mexico’s most influential chefs. Back at the ranch in Tecate, the family planted their Home vineyard in 2004, where Ana Montaño currently oversees the farming and is responsible for converting their vineyard to biodynamics. Bichi bottled their first vintage in 2014. It was in that year that Jair and his brother Noel met Chilean natural wine trailblazer Louis-Antoine Luyt. Originally from Burgundy, Luyt worked in notable wineries in France before relocating to Chile in 1998. He is now known for his work with the under-appreciated País grape, which so happens to be the same Misión grape that is found in Tecate. Louis-Antoine convinced Noel and Jair to seek out heirloom plantings of Misión, as he had done in Chile, and produce "vinos sin maquillaje" (wines without makeup) from them. The Téllez brothers saw connections between Louis-Antoine’s approach to wine and Jair’s approach to cooking, and like a bolt of lightning, Bichi Wines was born.

The majority of the vines are head-trained and all are dry-farmed, hand-harvested, fermented with native yeast, and aged in neutral barrel or vat so that the emphasis is on each wine’s Mexican terruño. "No Sapiens"comes from a single, dry-farmed vineyard comprised of a mysterious grape variety that remains unidentified. The farmer says it could be Dolcetto, Luyt thinks maybe Cariñena due to it's sharp acidity, no one is quite sure and perhaps it doesn't really matter as this wine shows its place beautifully. The head-pruned, own-rooted vines are planted close to the Pacific Ocean in the area of San Antonio de las Minas in Ensenada, Baja California. (Importer)