Wine Life - Houston

Though not quite a meeting on the astral plane, when an early morning conversation about dreams leads to the arrival of intriguing wines, it does make one wonder if, perhaps, the universe is working its mysterious ways through the magic of social media. A sample of the  2013 Vin Gris Tuilé , a "brick pink wine of the sun & earth", arrived to me in just such a way. I didn't even know it existed before it materialized via delivery service. Though a traditional blend of southern France grapes, this is not a typical rosé in the Provencal sense; this wine was solarized in a glass demijohn purposefully changing both it's color and character. I had dinner guests coming later in the evening and a large chunk of meat was already out spinning on the rotisserie. I was setting up some pre-dinner Mediterranean-themed snacks and decided to check out whether this Central Coast wine was "the perfect apéritif wine" as advertised on the back of the bottl

I had written about Randall Graham and his unique labeling a couple of years ago for a local magazine. I didn't love the editing so I never linked that article here, however, his  Vin Gris De Cigare  and Le Cigare Volant are wines that I know. I've purchased and served them both on more than a few occasions. When it was time to start appraising an array of Bonny Doon rosé samples, there was an obvious place to begin; t he  2015 Vin Gris de Cigare,  a Rhone-style blend of sustainably-grown Grenache, Carignane, Mourvedre, Cinsault and Roussanne, with a suggested retail price of $18 I poured myself a nice taste prior to dinner as I am prone to do when I am cooking at home. Hello, old friend, how did 2015 treat you, I mentally asked as I looked at my glass. It was a pale salmon pink with light citrus aromas. I took a sip. It was dry, crisp and smooth. I finished my final dinner preparations as the wine warmed up some and started to open up more displaying its familiar persona

As originally seen in the May 2016 issue of  Galveston Monthly magazine