Good Morning!

This weekend I might have met a crazy. I am not a doctor or even someone who should judge mental stability but I may or may not have met a crazy, but I am sure I met a drunk, that I can attest. I went to my current favorite wine location with some friends and we sat around the fire pit and listened to music. We like to visit Wine 101 because it is informal and the outdoors area is kinda like being at a friends house and you can be with a large group or alone and enjoy yourself. They have a nice wine list and NORMALLY very down to earth wine lovers who also like to listen to relaxing live music.

The music is normally 1 or 2 guys with guitars and a small speaker and you can spend the whole night chatting and enjoying the cool evening weather. There were probably about 25-35 folks all sitting around in different little social circles and normally we might all speak to each other but just kinda keep to groups. We had just sat down and over walks a guy who kept yelling out, play the Beatles to the musicians. No biggie but it was odd anyone was shouting out requests and it was odd to hear someone ask for the Beatles, we are in Texas, most folks here are not Beatles followers that I have met. These guys play more country and folk music, but everyone likes what they like, so I thought nothing about it.

This man says what are you drinking? Friends had ordered a Twoney Merlot and they told him about the wine, or at least said we had it here before and liked it and he just launched into an entire sermon about why people who love the Beatles really should only drink Chateauneuf-du-Pape. My curiosity got the best of me and said really? Why is that? Well..for the next 30-minutes he told me that the blend of 4 voices destined for greatness is just like the blend of grapes they use in France to make the blend of the popes, and I better do my research if I was ever going to be ready to try a wine of this caliber.

My wine loving buddies started to say something about my background and I quickly stopped them…he was one of those guys that no matter what you say he was going to battle you…also, he was clearly 4-5 glasses ahead of me and I was not loose enough to listen to him go on about his love of wine. His buddy finally came over and drug him back to their circle of friends and he said I hope he did not start in on you about the Beatles or wine…I said he was fine and highly enthusiastic about both.

We had a fun night, the band never played anything by the Beatles but the fun little drunk man got me thinking about Chateauneuf-du-Pape and though I have been trying more and more French wines, I wanted to know more, so I did a little research and wanted to share what I know about the area, wine and history.

So, I know a little bit about Chateauneuf-du-Pape is located in the southern part of Rhone France. It means “new castle of the pope” referring to the summer palace that was built in the 1300’s. The location is close to Avignon, France. There are very strict rules when comes to wines from Chateauneuf-du-Pape AC (appellation). A total of thriteen grapes can be used to make this blend and both red and white grapes are permitted.

It is highly unusal to have so many grapes permitted in French wines but the dominate grape for Chateauneuf-du-Pape is Grenache Noir and Grenache Blanc. Other reds used are Cinsault, Mourvedre, Syrah just to name a few and as for whites Roussanne, Clairette and Piquepoul to name a couple of them (white grapes are added to mellow the bold red wine and it is said that it helps in the long term bouquet of the nose). In this AC 97% of all grapes grown are red and the minumum alcohol must be 12.5%. This is really easy to attain, because this is a warm climate and the stony soil holds heat so these grapes get fully ripe, creating high sugar content so the high alcohol levels are reflected in the finished wines. Many of these Chateauneuf-du-Pape wines will be at 15.5% and higher in alcohol. These wines can age for years and years and still taste very young.

I can see why my buzzed friend wanted to share his love for this wine, they are amazing and really reflect the best of Southern France. I can see why he loves the Beatles and I guess I can see why he makes the connection. So from now on when I drink a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, I will think of the night in the Texas sunset and after each song, he would shout out…Play Hey Jude!

I hope you had some great wine adventure this weekend!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi