The Long Hand-Off
TASTING NOTES:
- Color Profile: White Gold
- Nose: Honeysuckle, Peach
- Flavor Profile: Ripe Pear, Melon, Pineapple
- Structure: Lively, Delicate Acidity (AbV 11.4%)
VARIETALS: Pinot Grigio
BARRELS: 100% Stainless Steel
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Janell.
It is, statistically speaking, a rare name. The Social Security Administration’s baby name data shows it peaked in the United States sometime in the 1960s and has been sliding toward obscurity ever since — which is genuinely a shame, because “Janell” has this elegant, slightly-ahead-of-its-time quality that a lot of names from that era don’t. It sounds like someone who would, in fact, become a fourth-generation farmer and winemaker in Paso Robles. It sounds like someone who would grow up begging her grandfather to teach her things.
The grandfather-teaching-the-grandchild move is one of the great recurring motifs in human civilization, by the way. Odysseus teaches Telemachus. Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel. Obi-Wan is basically a grandfather figure if you squint. The format works because the grandfather has no professional stake in whether you learn — he’s just trying to make sure something doesn’t disappear. Janell’s grandfather apparently did his teaching from memory, reconstructing the “real Italian way” from the 1950s Dusi Winery by sheer recollection, which is almost more impressive than any written recipe.
What I keep thinking about is the specific detail that she was sixteen for her first vintage. Sixteen. Most people at sixteen are trying to figure out how to seem interesting to other sixteen-year-olds. Janell was in a cellar getting a masterclass handed down from a man who learned it from his father, who learned it in Italy before emigrating to California in the 1920s. That’s a very long chain of people refusing to let something go.
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.
