For those of you paying attention, I last mentioned Santa Barbara-based Groundwork in my early July post about Harvest’s “Think Pink” tasting.  That evening, I sampled their delicious rose of Grenache.  But the Groundwork winery remained elusive to me.  During my research for the post, I was unable to find links to a website or further details about this winery, apart from resellers offering their products.

Mystery solved!  Further searching today clued me in to Sans Liege, the winery behind the Groundwork line.  You’ve gotta love any wine maker who quotes Dante’s Inferno on his site and Curt Schalchlin does just that.  It’s a beauty of a site and the other wines in Schalchlin’s library sound divine.  I’m intrigued about his Grenache Blanc, which I may try to find next.

In the meantime, I’ll raise a glass to Mr. Schalchlin and toast his 2009 Groundwork Grenache as this week’s Quaff of the Week.  According to the Sans Liege site, the single-grape wine is “leading with aromatics of raspberry cobbler, white pepper, Moroccan dates, tart cherries, cocoa powder, brown sugar and Provencal lamb stew. In the mouth are subtle shadings from blood orange, eucalyptus, fresh ground espresso roast, thyme, forest floor and grilled venison. A pleasant, dusty herbaciousness rounds out the palate, recalling rosemary, sage and tarragon. It is a wine with the complexity of offerings twice its price.”

Yeah, like he said.

I can still smell a strong cherry/cocoa odor in the empty bottle and really enjoyed the wine’s fullness, with a nice, modestly tannic finish.   And I definitely agree the wine was a relative bargain.  I paid about $20 for the bottle, which can also be purchased here.