Without going too deep into the particulars, this past Friday was International Grenache Day.
The global event attracted hundreds of events put on by wineries, restaurants, bloggers, friends and just about anyone who likes to explore wines. Started by Nicole Rolet, proprietress of Chene Blue in The Rhone Valley, I jumped head first into it, convinced master chef and restaurant owner Jeffrey Strauss of Solana Beach’s famed Pamplemousse Grill to let me pull together people and a tasting and we went to town.
We poured 28 wines over the four hour plus dinner tasting and he cooked up some amazing food ranging from mini Kobe beef sliders to spoons of pasta, quail, lamb and decedent chocolates.
We opened Grenache bubbly, Gris, Blanc, red from the America–all from Santa Barbara, red from the Rhone, Spain, Australia, and some Grenache blends from all over France.
This was more than a gathering. It showed so many different nuances of Grenache, but most importantly gave the grape a platform for visibility and greatly demonstrated how great Grenache can be.