In the first Wine Club shipment, I decided to select my favorite Rhone varietal; Grenache. My reasoning was that I would be able to taste my way through Grenache all winter, earnestly trying to find the right combination of wines to share with you. Frankly, I was not ever disappointed, not even with the ones that I wasn’t overly crazy about. I find this grape really intriguing in its diversity of flavor. When you really take the time to ‘taste’ up close, you can taste the earth, the sun (in a sun-dried kind of a way), sometimes the sweetness of eucalyptus, rosemary with hints of vanilla - lavender. Most often the California Grenache wines were round, ripe with full deep blackberry and cherry fruit. The Spanish Garnacha wines had some levels of cranberry tartness and sour cherries with a dusty rose essence. Being a lover of black licorice, there is no wonder that those flavors easily came through in the Montsant versions. And the French, they too, truly understand what to do with this grape. Undertones of mushrooms, deep forest green, maybe some moss … Not all the wines I tasted were 100% Grenache, not all were old vine, not all were aged in oak for years — but they ALL evoked deep thought, a Cheshire cat smile and purely simple Grenache joy. Perfects sips of grape heaven. A Votre Santé!
