Left to right, front row: Vickie Bone and Nancy Toppan; middle row: Mike Aramanda, Charlie Snowden, Cherie Snowden, Millie Aramanda, Eileen Whittaker, Beverlee Deardorff and Sue Wagner; back row: Bill Fideli, Jere Bone, Al Wright, Vivian Wright, Rob Denzinger, Charlene Cottingham and Frank Deardorff.
With apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson, at Robson Ranch a man’s fancy does NOT turn to thoughts of love in spring. Rather it is a season to shake off the doldrums of winter’s sleet and ice. It is a time to yearn for the outdoors and golf, garden and grill. For the Wine Stewards, it is the time to embrace the ‘Funky Wines’ of spring. A ‘funky wine’ is a wine outside your comfort zone. While Sauvignon Blanc has long been a staple of spring wines, it was time to explore something new and exciting. Hence the Wine Stewards researched and sampled a South African Vouvray and Chenin Blanc, a Viognier, an Argentine Rose, a Rhone Valley Grenache and a Spanish Garnacha.
Chenin Blanc is a versatile white wine grape grown throughout the Loire Valley in France and the world. It may produce wines ranging from quite dry white wines to sweet wines. Within the Loire Valley, these wines are labeled with the style Vouvray. Vouvray tends towards the sweet and works best as an aperitif or a pairing with a sweet dish. There is a drastic difference between the growing regions in the Loire Valley and South Africa. Chenin Blanc is the most grown grape in all of South Africa, a nation known for its wine production. Here the grape is known as steen, and it is off-dry, clean and crisp.
Viognier is a French grape, not widely planted there any longer, with less than 300 acres planted in its Northern Rhone home. Viognier wines exploded in popularity in the U.S. in the 1990s. You can find viognier wines from Virginia, where it is the state’s grape, to California. It is a food-friendly wine to sip on its own. It pairs well with seafoods and chicken dishes. Viognier offers a full-bodied white that can stand up to pork and other hearty dishes.
A rosé is a type of wine that incorporates some of the color from the grape skins but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine. Rosés account for the vast majority of Provence’s wine production. These rosés are known for their food and wine pairings with the local Mediterranean cuisine. They are the perfect summertime wines for a picnic, patio, or deck.
One of the most versatile red grapes in the world, Grenache, thrives in southern France and Spain where it is known as Garnacha. Ranging in style from light and fruity to deep and intense, the grape suits a variety of palates.