Thirty-Three Days Of Laughing
TASTING NOTES:
Donati Family Vineyard Reserve Syrah - “Aromatic and expressive, this Syrah opens with waves of blueberry, plum skin, black raspberry and a whisper of licorice. The palate is fresh and vibrant, with tart red berries, smooth cranberry sauce, and hints of caramel and chocolate. A medium-light finish lingers with notes of acai, dark chocolate and blackberry.” (AbV 14.2%, pH 3.82, TA 5.60g/L)
97% Syrah, 3% Grenache · 22 Months – 50% New French Oak, 50% Neutral Oak
Donati Family Vineyard Reserve Merlot - “Lush and fruit-forward, this wine bursts with ripe blueberry, cherry and plum layered over hints of vanilla and buttery pastry. The palate is creamy and vibrant, with notes of blueberry yogurt, rhubarb and cherry tart balanced by lively acidity. A medium-long finish reveals oak-driven depth with chocolate-dusted blueberries and fresh raspberries.” (AbV 14.3%, pH 3.73, TA 5.50g/L)
98% Merlot, 2% Malbec · 24 Months – 50% New American Oak, 50% Neutral Oak
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Albino Donati, Ron’s grandfather and the basement winemaker behind this whole family story.
Albino is one of those names that sounds like it should belong to a Bond villain but keeps showing up throughout history attached to perfectly respectable people. Albino Luciani, for instance, was a mild-mannered priest from the Veneto who became Pope John Paul I in 1978, only to die 33 days into his papacy — still the shortest pontificate in modern history. Historians and conspiracy theorists have been arguing about it ever since, which seems like a lot of drama for a man who, by all accounts, just wanted to be kind to people and was famously photographed laughing. Actually laughing. As pope. The Vatican press office didn’t know what to do with that at all.
Then there’s Albino Manca, the Italian sculptor who designed the back of the Eisenhower dollar coin, and Albino Carrisi, better known as Al Bano, one half of the Italian pop duo Al Bano and Romina Power, who were enormous in Europe throughout the '70s and '80s in the way that only European pop duos can be enormous — like, stadium tours in Russia enormous. The name Albino itself simply means “white” in Latin, from albus, the same root that gives us albumin, Albania, and the Albus Dumbledore. A quiet little word doing a lot of work across a lot of centuries.
