Bichi "La Santa" 2022

This red from Mexico punches far above its weight class. La Santa pulls you in with aromas of hibiscus, black cherries and a bit of bbq smoke. The palate is full of juicy black cherries, hibiscus, a touch of earthy minerality and that smokey note finishes lightly among the elegant and velvety lingering length.

La Santa comes from 110-year-old, own-rooted Rosa del Perú (Moscatel Negro) vines grown at 2,400 ft elevation on sandy loam and granite soils in Tecate. The grapes were destemmed by hand, fermented with their skins in concrete lagar for days before pressing with a basket press. Aged in stainless steel before bottling without fining, filtering, or sulfur addition.  

Bichi was founded in 2014 by the Téllez family, who moved to Baja from neighboring Sonora (the name Bichi means “naked” in the Sonoran Yaqui dialect). Bichi adheres to traditional methods and minimal intervention, farming 10 hectares of their own Tecate vineyards biodynamically and collaborates with a growing family of organic farmers working vineyard land in Tecate and around San Antonio de las Minas (Valle de Guadalupe).