Central Coast with Alex Krause, Birichino

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 30 March, 2020

Birichino’s flight at the recent Wines of California tasting was a lesson in how to go against the grain, with a focus on native ferments and century-old dry-farmed plantings all made at its Santa Cruz winery.

On day 11 of self-quarantine after returning from Europe, Birichino co-founder Alex Krause spoke to Jo Gilbert about closing operations and what making wine on California’s Central Coast is (usually) all about

Birichino is located in Santa Cruz, on California’s Central Coast. We are a two person company, own no land, share a winery, and make wine quite simply, favouring less fashionable varieties like Cinsault and Malvasia Bianca that comprise only 7% of California’s total acreage. As such, we’re an anomaly, making less wine in a year than many of our larger peers spill. But in another way, we’re quite representative of a change taking place in California brought on by the hydra-headed monsters of astronomical land prices, consolidation of distribution channels, and a proliferation of new producers and regions.

Though first planted in the 1840s, the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Central Coast has long been a sleepy backwater compared to the glitz and glamour of Brand Napa’s Wine Lifestyle. While neither John [Locke, co-founder] nor I came from winemaking families, nor banking or oil fortunes, we share a passion for what we do, and here, in an industrial estate surrounded by vegetable packing plants in the heart of Steinbeck country in the Salinas Valley, and with the right connections to multi-generation families with amazing old vines, it’s possible to strike out on one’s own, and make something that speaks of a place rather than of a marketing campaign.

With each passing vintage, we see more interlopers from up north searching further afield for fruit to dollar-cost average their fancier Post Code fruit, but local knowledge and connections, so far, have held sway.

Until recently, the biggest threat that our industry faced in California has been the demand for housing, which pushes up land prices. The return on farming an acre of 110 year old, low-yielding Grenache like that of Besson makes the allure of selling out to a developer for millions much more compelling, and the result is that many old vines are lost as families pull up that connection to their grandparents’ heritage.

Then there’s the supposed boom in wine sales. There’s been a lot of recent press about this, though as an independent producer sold by independent restaurateurs and merchants, we aren’t seeing it.

As for Covid-19, our tasting room is shut down except for shipping orders via post, and we’ve had to lay off all of our staff. Scary.

We’re hoping that when we reemerge, our friends in the restaurant business who represent our biggest market are still there. Here’s to focusing on health, family, and hoping for a better tomorrow.

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