The Groundwork Picpoul Carbonique is an orange wine made from Picpoul grapes sourced from California’s central coast. This natural wine is everything you want in a warm weather wine.
I discovered Groundwork Wine Company, and this Groundwork Picpoul Carbonique, on Instagram of all places. Social media is something I begrudgingly use, but when it comes to Instagram as a wine marketing tool, it’s pretty helpful for finding new, smaller producers.
Groundwork Wine, which is part of winemaker Curt Schalchlin’s Sans Liege Wines, is centered around single varietal Rhone-inspired wines from California’s Central Coast. Schalchin takes a meditative approach to wine, one that’s part wine-seer, part winemaker. It’s an ethos best encapsulated by this statement on the website:
I trust an intuition of the microcosms of each vineyard site and vine to guide my work through each vintage.
If you’ve nosed around the wine reviews on this blog, you know I love Picpoul wine, especially when our warm California weather starts to show its beautiful sunshine face. Whenever I see a California picpoul from a producer I haven’t tried yet, I grab a bottle.
With California’s rich coastal foods, and summer temperatures that can swim into late October, Picpoul wine has ample opportunities to demonstrate its acidic, thirst quenching qualities.
About Picpoul Blanc in California
According to the 2020 California Grape Acreage Report, there are just 57 acres of Picpoul Blanc in California. Texas and Washington also have small plantings of Picpoul.
The picpoul grape, a Rhone varietal, was planted in the United States in 2000, when Paso Robles Winery Tablas Creek imported cuttings of Picpoul Blanc, and planted a single acre in one of their Paso Robles vineyards. Every Picpoul vineyard in California can trace its grapes back to the Tablas Creek vineyard.
The Picpoul Blanc grape is known for the high acidity it imparts on its wines; after all, ‘picpoul’ means lipstinger in French! It’s a wonder that it took until 2000 for a winemaker to take a chance on trying their hand at Picpoul wine. If it wasn’t for the folks at Tablas Creek, who knows when we would have gotten California Picpoul!
Picpoul Carbonique is an Orange Wine AKA it Has Skin-Contact
Before we get into the tasting notes for Groundwork Wine’s Picpoul Carbonique, a quick reminder: this Picpoul is a natural orange wine – in other words, it’s a skin-contact wine.
Skin-contact wines, also referred to as orange wines, are white wines made with red winemaking techniques. The specifics of this bottle are: Picpoul Carbonique underwent 100% carbonic maceration for 12 days on the skins. The Picpoul grapes were sourced from two Paso Robles vineyards: 71% Beato Vineyard, 29% Derby Vineyard.
In an interview with San Francisco Chronicle wine critic, Ester Mobley in 2021, Schalchlin discussed the benefits of using carbonic maceration with light bodied wines. According to Schalchlin, carbonic maceration complements lighter-bodied, lower-tannin styles of wine and emphasizes a wine’s fruitiness and tanginess.
What are the results of using red winemaking techniques with this white wine grape?
100% pure California Picpoul awesomeness, in my opinion.
Picpoul Carbonique Tasting Notes
Jasmine tea jumps from the glass first, followed by bright, unmistakable notes of apricot. A rush of crisp and acidic ruby red grapefruit offers a bold, long, satisfying finish. This orange picpoul wine is beautiful, balanced, and I want to go back to K&L Wines and buy a few more bottles.
In the glass, the wine is the color of the sky when you get one of those rare red sun sunsets, a hypnotic coral orange.
At 12% alcohol, it’s a great bottle for spring and summer sipping.
Picpoul wines like this Groundwork Picpoul should be paired with oysters, and fresh seafood dishes like ceviche, or garlic and lemon shrimp scampi.
Groundwork Wine Company Tasting Rooms: They Have Two!
The Groundwork Wine Company has two tasting rooms, one in Paso Robles, and one in Pismo Beach. Groundwork’s Paso Robles tasting room is located in the brand spankin’ new Tin City, an industrial park featuring wine tastings, restaurants, live music, breweries, and more – seems like the perfect place for Paso Robles wine tasting!
You can also taste Curt Schalchlin’s Sans Liege Wines there.
Tin City Paso Robles is roughly five minutes from downtown Paso Robles.
The Pismo Beach tasting room is located in quaint downtown Pismo Beach, which would make a great wine tasting day trip if you’re traveling from Santa Barbara. It’s also worth noting that the San Liege Wine tasting room is just minutes from the beach. If you’re looking for a California beach wine tasting adventure, make this wine bar your go-to spot!
Reservations are encouraged at both locations.
If you can’t make it to one of these amazing tasting rooms, you can always purchase both San Liege and Groundwork wines directly through the website, or, even better, by joining the Groundwork or San Liege wine club.
Final Thoughts
For a good California wine under $20, you can’t go wrong with Groundwork Wine’s Picpoul Carbonique. Wait, let’s edit that. This isn’t just a good wine for under $20, it’s one of the best picpouls I’ve tried.
Keep an eye out for future posts about Groundwork Wines; I also bought a bottle of Groundwork Graciano!