After asking a few questions, we found out that these wines all originate from the Rhone region of France and that this restaurant specializes in serving those varietals. They mentioned that they're seeing a large trend towards these "old world" grapes and believe that these varietals are making a resurgence in the global wine scene.
After all of our class discussions on millennials desiring obscure varietals with a special story, it seems fitting that one of the hottest restaurants in Sonoma doesn't even serve a Cab or a Pinot.
The Girl and the Fig!! One of my favorite spots, although in my experience their wine list tends to feature wines on the lighter side (as a fan of heavy reds, this isn't ideal). Last time I was there I tried a Counoise (Frick Winery, 2012). Some fun facts about that wine, courtesy of the Frick website:
ReplyDeleteTasting Notes:
Clear pure red. Wonderful complex aroma of rose, olive, raspberry and pomegranate. Raspberry, cherry, pomegranate, red plum, forest flavors. Emits elegance. Complex and balanced. Lovely wine.
The Grape:
Pronounced coon-wahz. This is an obscure Rhone variety with large dusty colored berries and soft tannin. Rare –
To illustrate, in the entire state of California there are only 56 acres Counoise compared to 39,610 acres of Pinot Noir.
The Vineyard:
Frick's Estate Owl Hill Vineyard is the hill to the west of the winery. This tiny block is at the top of the hill. The soil is rock, gravel and clay from decomposed Dry Creek Conglomerate. At this site the vines have low vigor and produce grapes that are distinctive, full and complex with the unique character of this variety.
The Wine:
100% Estate grown Counoise. Aged 22 months in neutral oak barrels. Unfined. Light in color, aromatic and complex in flavor. This totally elegant wine delivers unigue wonderful fruit flavors.
Drink now to 2018.
Serve with:
tuna tartar, fruit and cheese, any kind of chicken dish, eggplant roasted until creamy, duck confit, simple fresh goat cheese on crispy sourdough, juicy pork chops with apple sauce
Totally gratuitous and unrelated comment, but The Girl & The Fig is really fantastic. (Classmate) Chris Mason and I went last spring and the wine (and the brussels sprouts!!!) were out of this world.
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