History
The Brosseaus fell for wine in the early 1970s; Graff, the Chalone founder, became a family friend, and tasting his Chenin Blanc settled where to buy. Planting began in 1980, when their son Bill was two; the vineyard has sold vineyard-designated fruit since 1995. Bill Brosseau grew up working the rows, took the viticulture and enology degree at UC Davis, joined Testarossa in 2000 and became its winemaker in 2003; he directs winemaking there today and farms the home ranch. He started the organic conversion in 2006 and certification came in 2011, the first in the appellation. The family label ran quietly from 2005 and launched in earnest in 2019, once Bill judged the vineyard ready to carry its own name.
The Site
Forty-two acres lie between roughly 1,600 and 1,700 feet in the Gavilan range above the Salinas Valley, on the west side of the Pinnacles, in the Chalone AVA: Monterey County's first appellation, established in 1982, straddling the San Benito line, first planted to Chenin Blanc in 1919. The elevation puts the vines above most of the valley fog, so days run sunny, nights cold, the swings between them wide, and rainfall scant; concentration arrives at modest sugars. The soils are the appellation's argument for existing: crumbling granite off the Gavilan block cut with deep veins of limestone, and one core sample came up at least 80 percent white limestone. Yields average about a ton per acre for Chardonnay and two for Pinot Noir. The neighborhood stays small: outside Chalone Vineyard's nearly 1,000-acre estate, roughly 250 acres of it planted, the AVA's handful of growers farm roughly 100 planted acres between them.
Vines and Blocks
The Chardonnay is Wente selection throughout, and many of the 1980 originals still grow on their own roots. Pinot Noir spans Mt. Eden, Pommard 4 and clones 113, 114, 115 and 538. Around the two core varieties the family has added Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Viognier and Roussanne, which makes Brosseau the rare Chalone source feeding Rhone-minded winemakers as well as Burgundian ones.
The Wines
Testarossa's Brosseau Chardonnay and Pinot Noir designates are made by Bill Brosseau himself, and Enfield Wine Co.'s John Lockwood bottles the Chardonnay in a bright, mineral, low-alcohol register. Under the Wire, the sparkling project from Bedrock's Morgan Twain-Peterson and Chris Cottrell, was founded on this vineyard: Bedrock's 2009 and 2010 still wines convinced them the site could carry bubbles, and the label's first wine was a 2011 sparkling Chardonnay from the own-rooted vines, then 31 years old. Hardy Wallace's Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah! bottles the Grenache, Copain a Syrah, and Folk Machine a Pinot Noir and a Syrah-Grenache; Ian Brand's La Marea, Loring and Fulcrum have all bottled designates. Brosseau Wines keeps the family's claim on the place with estate and old-vines Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the 1980 plantings, Chenin Blanc and a Grenache rose.