Down-Home Summer-Weight Wine
Here
at subterranean cellars, we spent the Fourth of July bottling wine with a
couple dozen friends. In this case, the wine in question was a Grenache-based
red blend of Rhone grapes including some Syrah, some Mourvedre, some Petite
Sirah, even a touch of Zinfandel, kind of an honorary California Rhone variety.
Modestly,
I named the bottling Chateauneuf-du-Pat, in a double tribute: to the great
wines of that charmed spot in the southern Rhone, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, “the new
estate of the Pope,” the magically stony vineyard zone established in the 14th
centaury by a breakaway batch of Popes who took up residence in Avignon and
left behind a winemaking powerhouse; and, of course, an homage to moi,
incorporating part of my last name. It was remarkable how many of my friends
didn’t get the reference.