I'm pretty dang excited about the wine this month. It is officially #idahowinemonth. We've got some great juice from a couple of my favorite Idaho wineries. I wasn't sure if I would be able to find all the selections from Idaho so had a plan B of also doing Spanish wines. Southern Idaho has a big Basque community so I thought that was a good combo.
Idaho is definitely part of the new frontier of grape growing areas. Fun fact-the first grapes were planted in 1864 in Lewiston and until prohibition Idaho actually had a nationally renowned wine industry. From the time prohibition ended until 1970 when grapes were planted in the Snake River Valley-radio silence from Idaho wine industry. Can you imagine where we would be if Prohibition didn't derail the early success of Idaho wines? Snake River AVA was the first Idaho AVA approved in April of 2007. In 2008 there were 38 wineries and now Idaho is home to more than 60 wineries. Idaho is a wee babe as far as the wine world goes. After talking with the wine makers for Cinder and Colter's Creek winery (this month's wines) I am so excited to see what happens in Idaho in the next 15 years.
The Colter's Creek wines are June's Indigo selection. This month we are featuring a Chardonnay/Viognier blend for the white wine and the red wine is the Tempranillo (the winemakers' favorite wine).
The sapphire selections are wines from Cinder. The white wine is the Dry Viognier and the red wine is a Malbec. I'm hoping to get my hands on some special order Cinder wines for a feature later this month.
For the Peacock selection I did defer to a wine from Spain. It might be a couple of years before Idaho is producing higher end wines. There are probable some out there-I would love to try them, but with the resources I have I deferred to plan B and chose the 2018 Macán Clásico Rioja from Spain.
We've even got Bubbles this month.
😀🍾🥂
For the Royal participates the quarterly bubbles hail from France, of course. Gremillet Dosage Zero is the selection this quarter.
Keep checking back I will have lots more information on the wine selections for this month. We are gearing up for a great summer. Hope to see you all soon.