Big Basin Vineyards GSM Gabilan Mountains 2013

Wine Enthusiast 93 points - Brooding black currant, blackberry pie aromas meet with clove, sweet tobacco, black tea and hot cola on the nose of this blend of 49% Grenache, 27% Syrah and 24% Mourvedre from the Coastview, Antle and Brosseau vineyards. There is candied Concord grape fruit to the energetic, light-on-its-feet sip, along with bay leaf, sage, marjoram and thyme..June/2017

Vinous 93 points - The 2013 GSM Gabilan Mountain is just as impressive from bottle as it was from barrel, if not moreso. The higher percentage of Syrah in this vintage adds mid-palate richness and creaminess. This is a slightly riper style than is the norm at Big Basin these days, but all the elements are very nicely balanced throughout..Antonio Galloni, September/2016

The Gabilan Mountains are a sizable range of rugged granitic and calcareous limestone rich mountains that run down the East side of the Salinas Valley, in Monterey County. The Rhone varietals tend to be their most complex, interesting and revealing their true character potential and vineyard terrior when planted on steep, rocky hillsides. The Gabilans are home to two famous AVAs, Mount Harlan (Calera Wine Company) and Chalone (next to Pinnacles National Park), which have demonstrated there is indeed something special about these mountains. We sourced the Grenache and Syrah for this blend from the 15 year old vines of the Coastview Vineyard, located six miles south of Calera’s Mount Harlan AVA and perched at 2,400 ft mountain top. The Mouvedre is from the 30+ year old Antle Vineyard (formally Graff Family Vineyard - Dick Graff was the founder of the Chalone Wine Company and AVA). The region is hardly hospitable to any crop other than low yielding, character rich wine grapes. We believe this among the greatest places to grow Rhone varietals in California which into context that about half of our production is sourced from these remote mountainous vineyards.