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Today is International Grenache Day - the first ever. Who knew? Apparently, back in June, a Grenache symposium was held at some French château or another. Co-hosted by British wine writer (and Francophile) Steven Spurrier it was decided, there and then, that September 24th would indeed be a feast day of sorts. It seems only fair seeing as Grenache, one of the component grapes of the venerable wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, is said to be the fourth most planted grape variety on the face of the planet.Well, not needing much prompting, Vinomaker and I decided to imbibe in a glass of Grenache ourselves this evening whilst we feasted. It's still September (Ca. wine month, although I have strayed twice already), so I decided on something domestic - a 2008 'Horse & Plow' Grenache offering from the Alexander Valley. It's nice to get out of Napa once in a while, even if it is only via a wine glass. Whoa Neddy! This wine's got some horse power. At 14.5% alcohol by volume all the soft strawberry flavours and supple tannins that you'd expect to find in a Grenache are gone, maybe they were never there. Yikes! Guaranteed not to improve with age...hate when that happens.
Stateside, September 24th is also National Punctuation Day. You can tell by my run-on sentences and a writing style verging on criminally abusive that I am not celebrating along with the rest of America. (I wonder what these particular revellers are drinking.) I can almost hear my sister, La Serenissima, rolling her eyes across the miles...mixed metaphors permitting.
Sorry sis!
14 comments:
Not knowing that the 24th was Grenache day, I blithely opened a bottle of Cannonau di Sardegna to pair with my ravioli with anchovies sauce.
Thomas, you must be psychic!
Must have been the wine gods talking to me.
Must've been...I firmly believe that God created the wine grape, and dogs, for me :)
I trained my previous standard poodle on grapes as treats. I carried a bunch with me; he stayed, he ate a grape; he sat, he ate a grape; he healed, he ate a grape; he stopped nipping at people, he ate a grape.
He used to go nuts at harvest time, weaving through the rows and eating away at the low-lying fruit that was missed and that began to become concentrated.
This new one does not like grapes.
Each of them licked up wine as puppies and then lost the taste for it.
Hmm...V2 is very interested in the low-lying fruit this year, but I can't tell if she is just sniffing at where the racoons have been nibbling or actually sugar-sampling for herself.
oh Grenache day! If only I could get a hold of "God Only Knows" from Cayuse OMG so goooood.
I missed cab day and now grenache, hopfully I'll miss Oaky Chardonnay day ^_^
yesterday was "whatever was on off in Sainsburys day"
Cannonau in Italian... just catching my breath and up on my blog reading... great post VG!
Sept. 24th is also the Princess' Birthday -- another reason to celebrate. Well, we bottled our 2009 Grenache the other day, and surprise, surprise, it tasted, like, well, you know, Grenache. The nickname for this one is: Vielle Maison de Bischof. Hope all is well in Vinoland. (We're sweltering under this heat wave.) Only one more block to pick this season: why, Grenache, of course!
Note to Thomas: please don't feed the dogs grapes. They are addictive, and they are poison. Our "poochie" just can't get enough of them. He's a grape fiend. Worse than Heroin. More deadly.
Weston: Yea, don't call me about Chardonnay day!
Thud: Not Tesco?
2B: I suppose I must put a Sardinian wine on my must drink list.
Craig: So early, once again.
Wow! Someone who actually knows what a metaphor is.Metaphorically speaking of course!!
M'Lord, long time no hear. We'll have to catch up and get all our ducks on the same page.
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