06 Apr Please The Palate Wine of the Week: Breaking Bread 2020 Field Blend Red Wine, North Coast

Raw Wine, a two day festival celebrating low-intervention organic, biodynamic, and natural wine growers and winemakers worldwide, returned to Los Angeles this week. As I wandered around, seeing familiar faces and tasting wines, I stopped at the Breaking Bread table. I recognized the label as I enjoyed the Grenache a couple of years ago. As I tasted through the wines, I was captivated by the Breaking Bread 2020 Field Blend, the Please The Palate wine of the week. Breaking Bread is a second winery for owner and winemaker Erik Miller who also owns Kokomo Winery in Healdsburg. I first met Erik in 2012 on a trip to Northern California when I was introduced to Kokomo wines. I knew he looked familiar when I saw him at Raw Wine but it had been a decade. We finally made the connection as I tasted through the wines. Erik’s first vintage of Breaking Bread wines was in 2018. After noticing a shift in the industry toward lower alcohol, food friendly, and low intervention wine, Erik decided to start a brand that was different from Kokomo. With Breaking Bread he seeks out dry-farmed old vines, uses native yeasts, and takes a very hands-off approach to the winemaking in order to make lighter bodied wines that express the purity of fruit. He also uses whole clusters and carbonic maceration. The Breaking Bread 2020 Field Blend is a blend of Zinfandel, Mourvèdre, Carignan, and Muscat Blanc. The grapes are co-fermented. The reds grapes are whole cluster and the Muscat is destemmed. The wine is 100% carbonic maceration and aged for 7 months in 100% neutral French oak. At only 12.7% alcohol, the wine is a translucent cranberry red color. The nose is vibrant with fresh red fruit and herbaceous aromas. On the palate, the wine has crunchy freshness, soft tannins, and a touch of minerality on the finish. 400 cases were made of the Breaking Bread 2020 Field Blend Red Wine, North coast which retails for $26. This is a super drinkable wine to share with friends, so find someone to break bread with and enjoy a bottle of Breaking Bread wine!