A Wine Story

Sometimes after I buy a bottle of wine, take it home and taste it, I make up a story about it. Usually it’s because of where I bought it and how much I paid.

Such is the case with this wine.

Rosenblum Cellars Château La Paws Côte du Bone Roan Red Wine 2006

Here’s the story:

The good people at Rosenblum Cellars, who make some outstanding wines, bottled this blend of syrah, zinfandel and some other Rhone grapes. They slapped a well-meaning, but cheesy label on the bottles and sent it off to their distributors around the country.

Some of it landed here in South Carolina. Since it originally retailed somewhere around $14, it was a little pricey for the oh-look-it’s-a-cute-label crowd. The more serious $14-means-nothing-to-me crowd was probably turned off by the cutesy label.

One day, someone at the distributor realized they had 20 or so cases of this 2006 vintage wine gathering dust in the warehouse. Enter the folks at World Market.

Maybe a salesperson paid them a visit. Maybe their wine buyer went to the warehouse. Either way, the wine buyer tasted the wine and thought, Yum. We can sell this.

The distributor slashed the price, probably to a level that would hurt my feelings if I knew what the mark-up was. I ended up paying $7.99 plus tax, with the Explorer program discount (free when you give them an e-mail address and phone number).

However, it’s a happy ending for me, because it’s a great wine from a winemaker I like and a portion of the sale goes to a great cause, Paws With A Cause. According to their press release, Rosenblum donated $43,134 to PWAC in 2008.

It's silky and rich, laced with flavors of black cherry, cola, cinnamon and clove. A pleasant acidity and mellow tannins hold it all together.

It's our new "house" red wine.