Broken Leg Vineyard, Anderson Valley
Mendocino, California
$30 (Wine Club Reorder Price $26)
Wesley Box grew up in San Rafael and on the commercial wharf in Sausalito and San Francisco where his father was a commercial fisherman. With an affinity for the ocean just like his father, Wes traveled up and down the coast of CA on his surf trips. On those trips, he found himself seeking out small businesses like local coffee shops and eateries and on the windy days he would go taste wine. I guess you could say that’s where it all started for Wes.
Over the years Wes worked many different roles within the wine industry and met so many influential people who helped him get to this point of launching his own label. He was a Sommelier and Bartender at Farm Shop, ran the wine program at Vin Antico in San Rafael, and was a wine broker for a number of small producers, many of which we carry at our shop thanks to Wes. Beginning in 2009, each year he worked the wine harvest for a different producer to get a well rounded view of winemaking and learned from the best (to name a few: Arista, CalStar, Red Car, Panthea, and Mending Wall.)
Those gentlemen told Wes to go for it and encouraged his journey into making his own wines. The Broken Leg Syrah was the first wine he ever made, and is now producing wine from Mendocino, and Sonoma County for his family’s upstart project Box Wine Company.
The 2019 Vintage was pretty epic in Anderson Valley. A moderately warm season gave them some extra hang time for the grapes at this legendary Syrah Vineyard. This Syrah has smooth white pepper, lightly tannic flavors of white tea, dried red fruit , red vines and cherry cola. It goes down a little too easy if you ask me…so be sure to pair it with a hearty dish like grilled pork chops. 48 cases produced.
By the way, “Briney Glimmer” is jargon specific to Boonville that means “lighthouse”. If you’ve never heard of the “Boontling” dialect in Boonville, I highly recommend Googling it. Fewer than 100 people are left who speak this unique dialect.
Taylor Morgan – March 2021
Bacchus & Venus Wines 