Alban Vineyards Estate Roussanne

Product Description

In 1989 John Alban pioneered California’s first winery and vineyard dedicated exclusively to the varietals of the Rhône, a 250 acre ranch in San Luis Obispo in the Edna Valley. At the age of 24 he had fallen in love with a glass of Condrieu at a time when anything that was neither Cabernet nor Chardonnay was barely grown in California. It had gradually dawned on him that the two big red grapes of the Rhône, Syrah and Grenache, were ideally suited to the climate of California. One of the pioneers of world-class Rhone varietal-based wines produced in California’s Central Coast, John Alban had the courage and foresight to plant Viognier in a region where no one else believed these grapes would thrive. His wines offer off-the-chart levels of concentration…..These flavor-filled wines are all made from frightfully low yields. The results are wines that are nearly beyond belief in terms of richness and density. These are true artisanal wines. A human dynamo, John Alban is more than a wine producer: Robert Parker has described him as the “spiritual and qualitative leader of the Rhône Ranger movement”: his impact on wine production in California is not to be understated.

Medium gold color is followed by notions of orange blossom, buttered toast and grilled golden fruits on the nose. A big, rich wine that has an unctuous texture, juicy acidity and beautiful length.