As I write this week’s blog, the temperatures are dipping to winter-like numbers, putting a bit of a delay on our spring mood, but this will pass soon. Spring is a time of rebirth – the early (yet somewhat fickle) surfacing of the crocuses and daffodils, the bright yellow sprigs of forsythia, and pink tinges of the cherry trees blooming all leading to an explosion of green everywhere.
This week’s tasting at City Vino features wines where there wasn’t really a particular theme in mind. I considered calling it a “Variety of Varieties,” until I realized that one of the wines was technically a blend of 85 percent of one grape, and 15 percent another. Though many places around the world, legally, the 85 percent means it can be labelled as the predominant grape variety without mentioning the secondary grape at all, but let’s stick to the non-themed theme, shall we?
When we think of certain grapes, we may immediately think of the specific country, region, or specific city, and it is often the place where the grape originated or first attained notoriety. The Albariño grape may lead you to think of Northwest Spain’s Rias Baixas region, and Pinot Noir may bring you to Burgundy, in France. If you shop wine store shelves, often you may see the name of a familiar grape, but from a place far away from the grape’s origins.
This week City Vino’s tasting will feature wines made with the grapes that will perhaps lead you to say (or at least think) “I didn’t know they grew that there.”
The store owner at City Vino, Rita Allan, challenged me, your humble (ahem) weekly blog writer, with the topic “Does Raspberry Color Mean Raspberry Flavor?” in my wine, as all the wines in this weekend’s tasting skew to a lovely shade in the raspberry color spectrum. As I spent time over the last several days pondering how to frame the blog for this week, my inner Prince surfaced, and these modified lyrics were running through my head over and over again:
She drank a
Raspberry colored-wine
The kind you find in a local wine store
Raspberry colored-wine
And if it was warm out, she’d probably drink much more
Raspberry colored-wine
I think she loves it
You’ll thank me for the ear worm later. I promise.
The ancient region of Illyria was a region in the Balkan Peninsula that varied in size over different periods of time. The Illyrians were fierce warriors who controlled the entire Peninsula, which was across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. The name Illyria faded in 15th century, but was revived in the 17th century, and was used by Napoleon. The Kingdom of Illyria was coined from 1818 to 1849 under Austria, and then the name dropped when there was reorganization of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
