Peju, Part Two
Posted 03/28/2008 at 06:37 AM by Cathy
Blending, as I wrote yesterday, is Peju winemaker Sara Fowler’s thing. Today I’ve opened two examples of Peju blends: a 2005 Fifty/Fifty that is 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, and something called Provence, which is made from half white grapes and half red grapes.
Half white grapes and half red grapes? That gave me pause.
“It sounds easy but it’s one of the most difficult wines to put together,” Fowler said. “It’s risky too, because you don’t know how the consumer is going to take it.”
How she means for consumers to take the Provence is as a “bridging wine,” something that’s fun and entry level, slightly sweet, and good for hot weather, BBQ, and spicy foods.
That sounds like a white wine and the Provence has some Chardonnay and French Colombard, but it’s also got Zinfandel, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In the glass the color is translucent like a white but it’s jewel-colored too (pale red jewels) like a red. The nose seemed confused. I couldn’t discern much by way of smells, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
But it tasted fresh, and animated, and it has just enough of a twist at the end to keep things interesting. If it’s possible for a finish to begin as a red and end as a white, this wine is it. It’s curious, and intriguing, and different, and fun. Fowler’s right: it is slightly sweet, and I’d willingly pair it with spicy (Asian, not Mexican) foods.
The Provence blend is made from 71% Napa Valley grapes and 29% Mendocino grapes, but the 2005 Fifty/Fifty is Napa Valley (specifically from Peju’s Persephone Vineyard) all the way through.
With equal parts Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, the Fifty/Fifty is less risky than the Provence blend. Merlot and Cab are such frequent partners that Riedel even has a glass – the same glass – for both varietals. The large (30-ounce) bowl of the glass allows Merlot, Cab, and Cab Franc wines to breathe; the bowl concentrates the aroma and it provides extra surface area to oxygenate the wine.
The Peju Fifty/Fifty needs the breathing space. Its nose is aggressive and wrapped up tight, like a fist, but surprisingly it isn’t nearly as aggressive on the palate. I wouldn’t call it a round wine, but there are some curves. It’s heading in the right direction, and I’m almost sorry I’ve opened my bottle of it already.
Tasting my way through yesterday and today’s three bottles of Peju wines was almost a chronological experiment: I’d drink the Provence blend right now, I’d drink the Fifty/Fifty in a few years, and I’d drink the Sauvignon Blanc all the time if I could. There’s a vibrancy about the wines, about Sara Fowler, and about Peju itself that is both exuberant and controlled, both straightforward and subtle, both elementary and sophisticated. It makes for a beguiling, come-back-again-sometime sort of mix.
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About the Author
Cathy Huyghe
Cathy Huyghe writes about drinking wine every day in the Boston area. She finds the quirky characters, the after-hours events, and the surprising stories that make up Boston's vibrant local wine scene. But no matter where she is, what she's doing, or who she's with, she mostly just wants to drink the stuff.
Her first restaurant gig was at Chez Panisse, when she knocked on the kitchen's back door and asked if she could work there. She's also worked for Jean-Pierre Vigato in Paris and Thomas Keller in Las Vegas. She went to graduate school at Harvard (twice), and her writing has run in Boston magazine, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Edible Boston, and on Nevada Public Radio and Grist.org.
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