Friday, June 06, 2008

my new favorite color


Perhaps it was serendipity that led me to the computer to research the wine I was loving at the precise moment "Nothing Compares 2 U" popped up on "party shuffle." Because at the risk of sounding as pre-packaged and canned as everything on mindless tv I've been hypnotized by for the past two hours- Nothing compares to this wine. It is Hendry estates Rose. No indication is given on the bottle as to what the grape is. ( digression alert-) And I am led to quote my French ami Michelle who once said, "why do you americans have to know every grape that goes into a wine? Can't you just enjoy it? I mean- when you smell a perfume do you have to know every scent that blended to make that smell? No. So just relax. really. You people have to relax." Odd. Considering not only the source but the recipient. Yet never more true words were intoned through the nasal accent all Americans feel insufficient facing in wine discussions. Yet here I am- thirsting for more information on this Technicolor wine that has moved me to verse ( using artistic license here). So it is Primitovo (close relative to zinfandel- uh oh) and Cabernet Sauvignon (whew!) that have come together to dance in my not-expensive glass. But what is cut and pasted into every review direct from the winery's web site is that it is "a saignee of primitivo and cab sauv."
Huh?
Whutza Saignee?
So I consult my most prized recent acquisition- Jancis Robinson's World Encyclopedia of Wine and conveniently alphebetized it took only a day or two (exaggerating) to find it (it's a big book) and it is a Bleed process. Saignee means "bled" in French and is is a process of allowing the juice to bleed off just-crushed grapes, allowing for enough time for the skins to give up their color. OK cool so the French have a word for it- but how is it different from other rose? Just that other roses don't declare how they were done- here are the options- 1) Saignee 2) throw a little finished red wine into the finished white wine (hmmm) or 3) charcoal treatments to take color out of a red that is un-sale-able as a red (isn't that what one uses to de-stink bad gas? Just axin)
YUMMY
So-my fabulously superior wine is made from Cab S and primitivo (which i know this vineyard rocks on with as their straight-up primitivo moistens my eye a little) and it is made in a most traditional and true way- and it makes the wine other-worldly pink- sort of bluish- and the flavor is everything a red-wine drinking girl might want when forced to live in Florida in summer. Man, living on the surface of the sun has opened my sun glassed eyes to things I missed for so long- my new favorite color is the color of Hendry Ranch Vineyards Rose. And in about fifteen years it could very well match the gin-blossoms on my nose- god willing.