2023 Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Cigare Volant Central Coast

In 1954, the village council of Châteauneuf-du-Pape passed an ordinance forbidding flying saucers from landing in their vineyards. Any that did land, the decree specified, would be impounded. Thirty years later, a philosophy-major-turned-winemaker named Randall Grahm heard the story, put a cigar-shaped UFO on a wine label, and gave California its most beloved homage to the southern Rhône. Bonny Doon released the inaugural 1984 vintage of Le Cigare Volant in 1986. Four decades on, it is still the winery's flagship, and Grahm still directs the winemaking.

The wine comes from California's Central Coast, a long ribbon of coastal country where Pacific fog and cold marine air push inland through gaps in the coastal range. That matters enormously for Grenache. In hot inland sites, Grenache ripens fast, piles on sugar, and turns jammy. In the cool coastal blocks Bonny Doon draws from, the growing season stretches out for months, and the grape develops the spicy, peppery, faintly savory character that defines great Châteauneuf. Grahm figured this out early, and it made him the Rhône Ranger — the man who proved that Grenache, Syrah, and Cinsault belonged in California just as surely as Cabernet did.

The 2023 is Grenache's show: 69% of the blend, supported by 15% Syrah, 14% plump and juicy Cinsault, and a 2% dab of Petite Sirah for spine. What it doesn't have is oak. Not a stave. The wine was raised entirely in stainless steel tank and bottled just ten months after harvest, a deliberate choice to protect freshness and lift rather than bury it under toast and vanilla. It's a lighter-framed, more transparent Cigare than the blockbusters of the 1990s — closer in spirit to a very good Côtes du Rhône than to a heavyweight Châteauneuf, and all the better for it at the dinner table.

Critics noticed. Wine Enthusiast awarded the 2023 93 points and named it an Editors' Choice, with Matt Kettmann finding fresh red currant layered in earth and herb, raspberry and strawberry on the palate, and fennel pollen and cracked pepper carrying it to a finish he called a very drinkable glass. Bonny Doon was also among the first American wineries to put serious wine under screwcap, and the 2023 arrives sealed exactly that way — no cork variance, no waiting, no ceremony. Forty years after the first flying saucer landed on a California wine label, this remains one of the most honest bottles of Rhône-style red the state produces, and one of the few whose reputation was built on ideas rather than oak.