What I’m Drinking Now: John Alban

John Alban, one of the Central Coast’s original Rhone Rangers -- and one of the most influential -- makes wine exclusively from Rhone varietals at Alban Vineyards in Edna Valley, where he lives with his wife, Lorraine, and his three sons.

“I am blessed with the challenge of living a lifestyle that makes that question [of what I’m drinking now] difficult, not for lack of wine, but for abundance,” Alban said. “I’m blessed with many talented winemaking friends who wish to share their wares with me and also blessed with a wife who runs the No. 1 wine distribution on the Central Coast.” (It’s J & L Wines and he is the J.)

His wife recently brought home some 2010 Kruse Vineyards Grenache from Jack Creek Cellars in Templeton, on the west side of Paso Robles, he reports. “It’s their inaugural vintage of this wine and it was wonderful. It has everything I love about Grenache, much of which I’m too embarrassed to admit to. It has forward, youthful fruit. It’s very pristine, with mineral notes, and has just a great purity of both the variety and my association of what that variety does in west Paso Robles.”

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