What do we start thinking about immediately after we’ve finished Thanksgiving dinner? What to make for the next holiday feast of course! Only 20 days to go until Christmas and we’re pondering a pork roast for starters, and of course, what to drink with it. And we’re looking no further than this 2019 Emme Wines Carignan “Sally.” It’s a food friendly (aka not heavy and tannic) wine that would also pair nicely with duck or chicken and savory vegetable dishes.
Carignan (also often spelled Carignane in California) is hardy grape variety usually combined with Rhone blends in France, but often bottled as a stand alone grape here on the west coast. The grapes from this wine come from vineyards planted by the Ricetti family in 1939, farmed organically, and like Claire Hill’s Mourvèdre that we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, requiring very little irrigation. In an email, winemaker Rosalind Reynolds tells us:
The age of the vines gives them a high tolerance for heat and much less need for water, conditions that contribute to the acidity of the fruit as well. The vineyard is in Mendocino and farmed by Pamela and Tom Ricetti, third generation vignerons. Tom’s parents planted the vineyard, and the family has farmed it ever since. They live on the ranch and are out in the vineyard every day, working the tractors and walking the vines.
That fresh acidity is the backbone of this wine with deep and rich fruity notes (thank you 83-year-old-vines!) and the subtlest tannins. In other words, racy and delicious! Unfined and unfiltered, 13.5% ABV.
We purchased this bottle from Gemini Bottle Co.