Talk-A-Vino

Winemakers must be some of the most creative people in the world. It is not enough to make a tasty wine (well, at some point it is – it is not easy to reach that point though, not at all) – but the wine also have to make it into a consumer’s hands – yep, someone have to buy it. Selling the wine is not easy, as you need to differentiate from hundreds and hundreds of seemingly indistinguishable bottles. To get there, winemakers have two primary choices of weapons – the label and the name.

I’m a sucker for a good wine label, but right now I just want to talk about the name. Have you ever heard the name of the wine and said “this is it, I must try it”? I had, a number of times. And the wine I want to talk about was exactly such a case.

When I saw the name “Rhapsody En Blu”, somehow, it was speaking to me. I didn’t care what kind of wine was that, what grapes it was made of or what region it came from. The name alone was enough to incite the desire. I don’t remember when did I see this wine name for the first time, but ever since I did, I was on a lookout for it. So when I saw it at the last Last Bottle Wines “everything must go” marathon, my fingers were moving really, really fast – and I got the bottle.

I was tempted a few times to open it, and then Friday night seemed to be a good enough occasion (or may be it was the fact that it was an eve of OTBN). The cork is pulled out, wine goes into the glass. I take a sniff and “oh my god” was the only thing I could say (my wife can attest to this).  The smell was exuberant without going overboard – crushed berries, crushed rocks, underbrush, spices, all together warm, inviting and – harmonious.  The taste perfectly supported the aroma – gentle ripe fruit, plums, smoke, roasted meat, touch of pepper – perfect acidity, good structure, good power, and once again, perfect balance and – perfect harmony.

According to the Wikipedia,  “a rhapsody in music is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, colour and tonality. An air of spontaneous inspiration and a sense of improvisation make it freer in form than a set of variations.” Tasting this wine, that “spontaneous inspiration” and “improvisation” were very easy to relate to.

This wine, 2012 R Squared Wine Company Rhapsody En Blu Red Rhone Blend, Santa Barbara County (14.1% ABV, 42% Grenache, 38% Carignan, 20% Mourvedre) is produced by the R2 (R Squared) Wine Company which makes both blends and single varietal wines from multiple appellations in California. If you care to know, my Drinkability  rating for this wine is 8+.

I don’t know if the great match between the name and the wine itself was the accident or a prophecy, but I can tell you that I strongly regret buying only one bottle of this wine. Not sure if you can find it (total production was only 475 cases), but if you will, don’t repeat my mistake.

There is also one more bonus which comes with this wine – it is very easy to pair with music. And the matching pairing should be … yes, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue! If you can’t find the wine, you can at least enjoy the music. Cheers!