Sunday, July 31, 2005

Tall Poppy

this very kickin vin is what those crazy down underers call a "PETIT VERDOT" qualified with a "Murray Darling" whatever that means. We liked it, initially for its label which had some art deco suggestions, the lip/couch/poppy picture, combined with the verticalness of the bottle.

I found that it actually was tall, - it kicked my teeth right at the start. Then I tasted a blackberry.

The beautiful cheyenne liked it more than me "at first it tickles my nose, then the aftertaste was well enjoyed, very berryish but not too sweet". She further comments that the combination of "petite" and tall in the title creates a great conundrum. Turns out that

The Petit Verdot grape variety is one of the six approved grapes for making red wines in the Bordeaux region of France. It is usually used as you would use a spice in cooking because a little bit goes a long way. Petit Verdot will often be blended as 1% to 3% of the total wine in order to take advantage of some of its most dominant characteristics. Petit Verdot has very deep purple color and a strong tannin structure. It is usually used to impart these features to the wine into which it is blended. Because Petit Verdot tends to ripen late in the season and is often lost to rains during harvest, it is following another variety, Carmenere, into near extinction in the Bordeaux region.

I did in fact notice that it did a marvelous job turning my teeth a deep purple!

gnite internet!