Iruai "Bloom Phase" Red Wine 2025

Pale ruby in color, with a tropical and peppery nose, aromas of fresh cherry, strawberry, raspberry, bruised red apple, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, bubblegum and leather. Youthful, fresh and zesty on the palate, with crunchy red and blue fruits and that smooth finish you've been looking for your whole life. High acidity, low tannins, medium body, balanced and quite complex. Berries and barnyard. Drink chilled.

Iruai's "Bloom Phase" is a California riff on the lighter, high-toned Southern Rhone reds the winemakers drank in Provence over the summer, long ago. A combination of whole cluster fermented Grenache and Gamay (50/50), made to usher in the warmer months. 500 cases produced.

Iruai (pronounced “eer-oo-eye”) is a boundary-pushing nomadic natural wine project from Chad and Michelle Westbrook Hinds, based in the mystical Shasta-Cascade mountains in the Siskiyou wilderness of far northern California. Their wines blend Alpine grape varieties, wild terroir and natural winemaking in a style they jokingly call “Californian Alpine.”

They seek to make wine with a sense of place by employing no additives and removing no character. Their goal in the vineyard is to let the vines thrive like they would in the wild, and in the cellar, to shepherd each ferment through its own natural development and evolution.