Chili, No Numbing Agent
TASTING NOTES: “The nose is instantly alluring. One expects from your basic Grenache a simple strawberry aroma, but here we have in support of its bright fruitiness an intriguing collection of melon, droughty “garrigue” herbs, saddle leather and Asian spice. The mouth is medium bodied with fine tannins and energetic minerality.”
2019: (AbV 13.0%, pH 3.87, TA 5.7 g/L)
2020: (AbV 12.6%, pH 3.87, TA 5.7 g/L)
2021: (AbV 12.9%, pH 3.79, TA 5.6 g/L)
2022: (AbV 13.4%, pH 3.83, TA 5.4 g/L)
VARIETALS: Grenache
BARRELS: 100% crush/destem, Anchor VN112 yeast inoculum, 7 gm/L untoasted Alliers chips, air seasoned 2 yrs.
PAIRS WITH: Chicken and three-bean salad with sun-dried tomatoes. Serves well with a steak. It loves game, from venison to quail and is magic with Hunanese stir-fried beef in garlic black bean sauce.
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Hunanese stir-fried beef in garlic black bean sauce, one of this wine’s suggested food pairings.
Hunan gets edged out by Sichuan in most “spiciest region of China” conversations, and honestly the ranking might be wrong. Sichuan cooking leans on huajiao, the numbing peppercorn that turns your tongue into a buzzing stranger — so a lot of the sensation is tingle, not burn. Hunan skips that trick entirely and just goes straight chili, fresh and pickled, no numbing agent standing between your mouth and the pain. Some food writers argue that makes Hunanese food the actually hotter cuisine, gram for gram, because there’s nothing softening the blow.
There’s also a quote that keeps making the rounds in food writing about the region — probably apocryphal, but it never seems to die — attributed to Mao Zedong, a Hunan native: something to the effect of “you can’t be a revolutionary if you haven’t eaten chili peppers.” Whether he actually said it or not, it’s been repeated so often it’s functionally become regional folklore, which might be the more interesting fact anyway. A quote doesn’t need to be real to do a lot of cultural work.
ICYMI, you have two choices:
- Worried Summer heat might get to your wine before your wine gets to you? Order from the sale linked here, and we’ll get it to you at a cooler time of year!
- Want it shipped now? Every package during the summer will have protected temp control ground shipping for much of the country that takes longer but will ensure safe delivery. Expect up to two weeks for delivery. Now through the September 12th offer.
