Qupé Modern White Central Coast Blend 2014: Bright golden color; peach, flowers on the nose; chardonnay, viognier, and marsanne blend;
fruity with hints of sweetness (viognier harvested riper than normal for richness and swipe of sweetness, while chard and marsanne were harvested touch early to deliver sharpness and acidity), white peach, ripe fruits, spice; dry (a wine can be dry with fruitiness suggesting sweetness), very fresh with minerality, medium body, bright in the mouth.
This wine is skillfully aimed at the Millennial market—it assiduously avoids cloying, sugar-driven sweetness, but still delivers comforting fruitiness; it has excellent acidity to work with food and reassure sippers it is not insipid; it is tasty with some depth and structure, especially at its price point. I have now tasted thousands of bottles of wine and almost every experience, especially anything beyond the simplest entry-level commodity stuff, reminds me how air is the friend of wine. Time in glass brought out waves of new dimensions and deliciousness in this effort (I am not the only wine writer to note this with this pour, BTW).
Winemaker Bob Lindquist, now joined by his son, Ethan, is a founding father of the Central Coast and Rhône Ranger wine tradition. The Central Coast stretches some 250 miles along the Pacific coast and is home to hundreds of important wineries who grow a wide array of imported grapes; Lindquist focused on classic Rhône grapes. The region is known for its modern and experimental approach to vineyard management and wine making.
With more than 90,000 acres under vine, the Central Coast is a major player in American wine production and one of the most important New World regions on earth. Qupé helped make it so, and this nicely sustains its tradition. Qupé (kyoo-PAY—Native American Chumash name for the California poppy). $14-17 