The 1974 tune by Mac Davis, called “Stop and Smell the Roses,” has been hijacked by City Vino for our themed rosé tasting this weekend, which shall now be known as Stop and Smell the Rosés. Of course, our City Vino staff were not even a twinkle in our parent’s eyes in 1974 , so this song was played for us as an “oldie” in the 1990s, during our formative years . That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.

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.

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.

This coming weekend, City Vino presents a comparative tasting of Pinot Noirs. Our definition of comparative tasting for this event is multiple wines, made from the same grape, from different regions.