Tastes Therefore Knows
TASTING NOTES:
2024 Vigo Picpoul Blanc, Paso Robles - “Aromatically, the 2024 Vigo Picpoul Blanc releases Meyer lemon, sage, and peach in the glass. Texturally, the wine is moderately rich framed by refreshing acidity and freshness. The flavor profile is driven with tropical notes like passion fruit and mango with a halo of lemon and mandarin orange.” (AbV 13.5%, pH 3.44)
100% Picpoul Blanc
2025 Vigo Chenin Blanc, Highlands District - “Aromatically, the 2025 Vigo Chenin Blanc releases lime, stone fruit, and mint in the glass. Texturally, the wine is medium bodied greeting the palate with soft acidity. The flavor profile is fresh citrus and lime with a balanced minerality.” (AbV 13.0%, pH 3.31)
100% Chenin Blanc
BARRELS: Neutral French oak.
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Sage, one of the aromas the tasting note lists for the Picpoul, alongside Meyer lemon and peach.
English has two completely different words spelled sage, and they arrived through French looking identical. The herb comes from Latin salvia, from salvere, “to be in good health,” which makes it a cousin of salvation and salve. The wise old person comes from Latin sapere, which meant both “to taste” and “to be wise.” The Romans apparently saw no gap between the two, and I respect that. It’s also where Homo sapiens comes from, so our species name roughly translates to “the one who tastes things and therefore knows stuff.”
The herb’s reputation is the part I love. A medieval health poem out of the medical school at Salerno asks, more or less, why a man should die when sage grows in his garden. That’s a very confident thing to say about a plant we now mostly use on Thanksgiving turkey. I’d like to know what the Salerno doctors thought happened to everyone who owned a sage bush and died anyway (I assume they had notes).
