Not Your Typical Sparkling Red
Readers and drinkers, everything seems to be just a little off these days. I was outside of the price range for Wine Blogging Wednesday, I was 2 days late with my wine column, and at a private tasting the other night, my normal banter with the crowd was constantly interrupted to be translated into Japanese. It seems appropriate, then, that the picture to the right is a little blurry and that the wine itself was not quite what I expected. BK wanted to share the NV Rymill “The Bee’s Knees” sparkling red from Coonawarra. He’d never had red bubbles before, though I may have mentioned once or twice that I adore them. This particular wine is a blend of 4 grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cab Franc, and Shiraz (in order of highest percentage to least). I have to say my first reaction was that it ‘tastes like a Cab,’ which stemmed from the fact it had more tannin and didn’t taste as rich as the red sparklers I’ve had in the past. I got coffee, as opposed to the chocolate I often find, and bing cherry, instead of the more typical raspberry. Once I got past the expectations, I could enjoy the glass(es) based on what the wine was, rather than what it wasn’t. And it was a delightfully dry sparkling red that matched the salty goodness of sauteed mushrooms over bread.
I’m just glad John Innes, the winemaker, decided to share it with all of us, instead of only with family and friends, as it seems those were his original plans for The Bee’s Knees…
NV Rymill “The Bee’s Knees”, sparkling red
May 18th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
You mentioned coffee on The Black Chook too… even though I’ve only had the Bee’s Knees, it seems like there’s quite a wide range of possibilities for these red sparklers. Definitely have to keep the eyes open for more of them.
May 19th, 2007 at 3:28 am
I was going to ask you about sparkling wines and lookie here. I’ve never had sparkling red. Nice.