The world is shifting again, I got a wine shipment from A Taste of Monterey and it is Day 84 of the lockdown.  I haven’t booked my appointment for a haircut, and even though they are still illegal, the Supreme Court of Michigan sided with a barber who just wanted to eat and save his business and home.  So, I guess the issue is rather moot, if one barber can work, I guess the others can as well, including the hairdressers.  Restaurants and bars can open with new regulations and are only allowed to do half of their business.  Of course, since our hypocrite governor was seen and photographed in the newspapers not practicing Social Distancing, will the restaurants and bars use that as ammunition to get their businesses back running as normal; or does the virus from China recognize that a governor is safe and immune from the disease.  The main thing is that potentially life is getting better and I can write about some new wine. 

The first bottle I pulled out of the carton was selected because it was a short and squat bottle as opposed to the classic European style bottles that one normally associates with wine.  It was a bottle of Galante Vineyards Petite Sirah Olive Hill Carmel Valley Estate Bottled 2017.  The Galante family has a long personal history in the Monterey County of California.  Jack Galante’s great grandfather, James Frank Devendorf, was the founder of Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1900, and later built the Pine Inn and the Highlands Inn (which we have enjoyed a couple of times).  In 1969, Jack’s parents purchased a seven-hundred-acre cattle ranch in what was then rustic Carmel Valley.  In 1983, the Galante family began growing premium wine grapes on the property, specializing in Cabernet Sauvignon.  In 1994, Jack Galante built a winery and used his grapes to produce his estate bottled wines.

While Galante Vineyards are known for their Cabernet Sauvignon, they also have limited estate grown Malbec, Petite Sirah, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and a few more, as well as some blended wines.  This particular wine, the fruit is hand harvested from two different elevations in the same vineyard.  One section is at one-hundred feet in elevation and the other vines are at eighteen-hundred feet in elevation, and hence the fruit is growing in different soils and at different temperatures for the season.  They are suggesting an aging potential of six to eight years.  They describe the wine as having a nose evoking violets and roses, and flavors of bright cherry and sweet vanilla with a light tannic backbone. It sounds interesting and it is a varietal that is usually found blending with others.  I venture to say that this wine may have a short stay in the cellar, just because of its uniqueness.