Firestone Walker Barrelworks Releases Bretta Blanc

Buellton, CA: Just in time for the heat of the harvest season, Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks is set to unleash Bretta Blanc—an eccentric and effervescent wild ale made with white wine grapes from David Walker’s family vineyard.

“Bretta Blanc is all about offering a soft Champagne-like mouthfeel for maximum warm weather drinkability in late summer and early fall,” said Barrelworks’ Master Blender Jim Crooks. “It’s one of the easiest-drinking wild ales you’ll ever taste.”

Bretta Blanc begins rolling out this week to all Firestone Walker markets in limited draft and 375-ml bottle formats. It is the third of four bottled Barrelworks wild ale releases slated for 2019.

From The Lion’s Den
The story of Bretta Blanc begins at Kingsley Vineyard in California’s Santa Ynez Valley, which is the longtime family vineyard of brewery proprietor David Walker, a.k.a. The Lion. Here, Crooks and company picked Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc grapes over multiple harvests dating back to 2016.

These grapes were pressed and fermented with a light base beer using proprietary wild yeasts. The different lots were then matured for one to three years in French oak barrels prior to final blending.

The result is a uniquely nimble beer-wine hybrid that exudes racy tropical aromas with notes of honeysuckle and honeydew melon.

“Barrelworks is all about rising to the challenge of transforming raw ingredients into something beautiful,” Crooks said. “With Brett Blanc, we took aromatic white grapes and aimed to create something as close to Champagne as we could. This is the ultimate crossover beverage—the wine grape aromas coming out of the glass are just amazing.”