52 Weeks of Wine

  I’m finding that a lot of our unusual or “un-heard-of” varietals are Italian! Cortese (pronounced core-tay-zay) is an Italian white wine grape grown primarily in the Piedmont region. It’s typically used as a blending grape as its sensitive growing nature makes refinement for a single-varietal wine challenging for winemakers. 

If you’ve felt confused about Syrah, Shiraz and Petite Sirah, I’ll clear it up for you here: Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape, Petite Sirah is a whole different, unrelated varietal. Despite its name, Petite Sirah is no small grape, it’s actually quite powerful and big! We just wrapped up GSM month and, in

We’re rounding out GSM month (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre), and though we’ve tasted each of the varietals individually, this week I chose a different representation of the varietals: a rosé. Rosés only recently became part of my favorite wines when I realized that not all rosés are sweet. I felt a little silly when I discovered

I’m sorry if this is the 5,000th time you’ve heard me say this, but the March wines for the 52 Weeks of Wine are GSM-themed, which stands for Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. GSM is known for its fruit-forward traits with soft tannins and balanced acidity. So far, we’ve tasted Grenache, Syrah and a sparkling Shiraz.

I knew when I decided to have March serve as a focus on GSM (Grenache Syrah Mourvedre), we’d need to (1) break up the red wines with some other options and (2) experience a couple representations of these incredibly diverse grapes. So, this week, we’re tasting a Sparkling Shiraz!