I discovered super small Sonoma County Staysail at the silent auction for the Garagiste Festival in Sonoma…or Glendale! I bid on the lot of six wines– two Grenache Blanc plus two of two vintages of Grenache Noir thinking even then that it would make a great Grenache Day post if I won the lot– which I did! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to stop at his table to meet winemaker Matt McDermaid — or taste his wines– until I got home, and Sue and I tasted the wines for Grenache Day paired with oysters, a grilled Peach Burrata Salad, and Butter Lamb Curry with turban squash chickpeas. yum! Scroll down for all the details! And happy Grenache Day!
While Grenache is one of the top wine grapes grown around the world, there’s less than 4,500 acres of it grown in California– down from 20,000 acres in the 1970s when it was grown in the Central Valley and used for bulk wine. Compare that number to Cabernet Sauvignon in California which has 95,000 acres right now in the Golden State according to 2021 USDA data and which made up 15% of the 2022 crush.Continue reading →
Grenache from Dave Phinney Orin Swift D66 with lamb chops
With Grenache Day next Friday Sept. 20. the French Winophiles are going with Grenache; scroll down for links. So how I could say no? I love Grenache whether it’s blanc or noir or rose!
Did you know that California has almost 90k acres of Chardonnay– the most popular white wine in the world? Coming in second is Sauvignon blanc with less than 17k acres. What about white grapes originally from the Rhône region of France planted in California? Not so many! There’s only 2.5k acres of Viognier, 620 acres of Grenache blanc, and 150 acres of Vermentino grown in California according to the California Wine Institute. If you add in miscellaneous rows of Rhône white grapes, it’s unlikely that there’s much more than 4k total. No surprise Americans are more familiar with Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc than Viognier and other white grapes from the Rhône region– an area of southern France where red grapes like Syrah and Grenache are better known and more widely grown (stay tuned and subscribe for Grenache Day in September!)
With this summer’s record breaking heat, and the dog days of August upon us, we turn to white wines to cool us off. First up, five from Iberia– a region of the world most well known for their red wines. We have two from Spain and three from Portugal — including two Albarino, one from each country just in time for Albarino Day which is today! We paired these refreshing, chill white wines with Spanish style tapas, Mediterranean orzo salad, oysters, and whole grilled snapper for a dinner that keeps the house cool too.
Coming soon: Rhone whites from southern France and Rhone whites from Southern California for Aug 4 “White Wine Day”!
How to Do a Wine and Cheese Tasting to Celebrate Wine and Cheese Day
We all know that wine and cheese is a match made in heaven. But which wine with which cheese? As they say, what grows together goes together, but not all cheeses from a place go with all the wines. So we chose a range of four wines from four countries in the EU (Italy, France, Portugal, and Germany) to pair with a range of eight cheeses (Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, England, Spain) just in time to share with you for Wine and Cheese Day held annually on July 25. Not only did we come up with a nice variety of cheeses but a variety of cheeses made with different milks (cow, sheep, goat) as well as cheeses from different countries with a variety of textures from fresh to aged.
If you’re building a cheese board, and you’re unsure of the wines that might be poured,
Shiraz is just another name for Syrah, the dark skinned grape from the Rhone region of France. Or is it? While in the US, we follow the French and call it Syrah, if the wine is grown in a hot climate, it will offer a flavor profile that lends itself to the typical rich juicy jammy Australian style called Shiraz. Under US wine laws, wines made from Syrah or Shiraz can call it by either name. As the third Thursday in July is Shiraz Day, we are celebrating with a Shiraz (aka Syrah) from Lieu- Dit Malackoff, Pyrenees Australia paired with a summery menu featuring a smoky meatloaf full of rich bacon!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 