No One Hogs The Frame
TASTING NOTES: “We design this blend to be balanced and approachable, and it becomes that almost automatically. We bring together most of the red varieties we have in our vineyard and they become a wonderful blend almost on their own. The trick is finding just the right proportions every year. For this vintage, Cabernet Sauvignon provides the foundation and adds brightness. Syrah brings decadence, dark fruit, and richness. Cabernet Franc adds vibrancy and delicate complexity. Petit Verdot imparts its structure and meaty opulence. Merlot completes the ensemble with freshness and its distinct fruitiness. The end result is a definitive portrait of the vintage, our site, and our particular style. It is in many ways our vineyard in a bottle.” (AbV 14.1%)
VARIETALS: 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Syrah, 22% Cabernet Franc, 14% Petit Verdot, 5% Merlot
BARRELS: Aged 20 months in neutral French Oak
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Ensemble.
“Merlot completes the ensemble” — that word does a lot of quiet work in English. It comes from the Latin insimul , “at the same time,” which became French ensemble , “together,” and then got borrowed into English twice: once for furniture and outfits (a “living room ensemble,” a “matching ensemble”), and once for groups of performers who only work because none of them is trying to be the whole show.
Hollywood loves calling something an “ensemble cast” like it’s a modest choice, but ensemble films are some of the hardest to pull off — Robert Altman built a whole career on overlapping dialogue and nobody hogging the frame (Nashville , Short Cuts , Gosford Park ). Same logic applies to a string quartet, a heist crew, or the cast of any given Avengers movie once they stopped letting one guy carry it. The whole point of an ensemble is that the parts have very different jobs and none of them get billed as the “lead.”
Also, mildly deranged fact: musical ensembles used to be graded by how many “parts” they had before “part” and “ensemble” basically merged into the same idea — a duet is two parts working together, an orchestra is ninety. Somewhere in there, the word just stopped being about the number of people and became about the fact that they’re not fighting each other for the spotlight.
PRODUCER PODCAST: Dineen Vineyards Vintner’s Blend Red Wine (3:23)
ICYMI, you have two choices:
Worried Summer heat might get to your wine before your wine gets to you? Order from this sale, the page you’re on right now, and we’ll get it to you at a cooler time of year (October)!
Want Protected Summer Shipping and don’t think heat will be a problem? Order from the sale linked here ! We’ll still try to get them to you with as little travel time as we can.
Some places get absurdly hot during the Summer, and in particularly unpleasant circumstances, it can damage a wine. Most people get theirs no problem, but there are a couple each Summer that fall victim to the sun no matter how fast we get them to you. If you’ve experienced that before or are afraid it’ll happen to you, we’ll hold your order for you until October, if you order from the Summer Hold sale. We are reasonably sure things will be cooler then.
