Are you drinking Grenache? Here's why you should be. And why our newest release is extra-special!

• The emotional moment of sending off our first Grenache bottles is truly unforgettable, marking years of hard work and dedication.
• Our new Grenache represents not just a wine but a legacy we're excited to share with you all.
• This wine's release is tied to the cause of cancer research, making every bottle purchased a step towards making a difference.
• Grenache is a versatile wine that pairs beautifully with various foods, making it a must-try for any dinner table.
• We (sustainably) packed each order ourselves, wrapping them in love and care, which adds a personal touch to every shipment.
• Our partnership with the V Foundation allows us to give back while enjoying a glass of wine, making it a heartfelt experience.

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Purchase our small-lot, sustainably grown, super delicious Sollevato 2023 Grenache and 2022 Sangiovese! Super-versatile wines for your table all year round! (Use the code PODLISTENER for 10% off Nikki and Michael's Sollevato Wines!)

Try one of our favorite rosé of Grenaches from Terratorium Wines

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This whole overlay to giving back is something that I've wanted to do.

And this Grenache that left my hands.

Today represents that being live and going into the world and it's, it's a big deal and it's really special. So I had to come running up here to my recording studio, home office because I was feeling some emotions and I wanted to capture it.

So the UPS truck just pulled away from my driveway and I have a lump in my throat and I'm a little bit overwhelmed with emotion. You see, we just loaded 14 packages onto his truck. So yeah, they were pickups, not drop offs. This is not my Black Friday shopping arriving.

This is our passion project, labor of.

Love, our brand new Grenache that just.

Released into the world less than a week ago. Michael and I spent most of Sunday packing up with our two hands these orders and shipping them literally across the country.

So when I watch those babies go onto the UPS truck with our lovely local driver, David, it's kind of a moment for me because it's a culmination of literally years of work to get to that point.

And Michael and I, being a team of two with our teeny tiny winery that we are, we literally touch it at every point, even to the very end, putting it in our compostable pulp shippers, wrapping it with our special logoed compostable Solevato tissue paper, making it look pretty, putting a little note in there and loading them up on the truck. That's us. So it is very fulfilling.

And actually packing those orders is one of my favorite things to do in this whole process because it really is the closing of the loop, the full circle from the inception that we had more than a decade ago. Like, we should make some wine to sending it to all of you.

The only thing that gives me even more gratification and satisfication are those both words.

Satisfaction is when you all send us pictures or tag us on social media when you're drinking it and sharing it with your friends and family and it's on your holiday table. And that's like, ah, this is why we do what we do. So I just literally had a moment with David, the UPS driver, driving away from our clutters back.

You know, I don't have children, so in a weird way, this wine, these bottles are my legacy. Michael and I, it's our legacy. It's like go forth and spread joy into the world in people's glasses.

So thanks for understanding that and for supporting it. And this is not the first wine release we've had in the first shipments to leave here.

But I know that this one is extra special and maybe a little extra charged as far as the emotions because it's a brand new wine Grenache that we've never made before, that we love drinking.

Our favorites that we like to drink.

And now ours is out there. And while we will still drink our neighbors and fellow producers Grenache, we're drinking ours because it's delicious. So it's something new.

It's a new addition to our portfolio which represents a lot of work and partnership with our growers, the Ramazatis, who farm this Grenache vineyard for us in the Dry Creek Valley. And it's like, are we going to do it? It's something new.

And it's a two year process, as you've heard me talk about, to putting it on that UPS truck. So there's, there's a lot to it. And since the inception of Sol Otto, I knew I wanted to do an impact driven wine.

And Michael and I just couldn't land on what it should be as far as a cause or a charity to do. Proceeds from each purchase goes to.

But after the year that we have been through with my, almost exactly one year ago this week, diagnosis of breast cancer and almost a full year full of treatments successfully, here I am feeling good on the other side of it.

But then of course my dad's diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer right around Memorial Day and his passing on August 30, it's been a challenging year and I'm always looking for the silver linings. And this year brought into focus that we needed to put cancer research at the forefront as part of our impact driven wine.

And there are so many different organizations I could work with. And of course, my brain initially went right to breast cancer research.

But then we decided to zoom out on all cancer research and partner with the V Foundation.

I first became familiar with the V Foundation through the winery where I work, Pride Mountain Vineyards, and Suzanne Pride Bryan, one of our co owners, who's also a breast cancer survivor who also lost her own father to cancer in the middle of her own treatments. She and I have that parallel, which is pretty crazy.

And she and her husband, Stuart Bryan and the entire Pride Winery organization have been avid supporters of the V Foundation, hosting different events at the winery, including some of the board members like Robin Roberts and my childhood Ice Capades crush, Scott Hamilton.

So I reached out to Suzanne when I knew that I wanted to do a partnership and and she connected me with the team from the V Foundation so that we could work together, giving $4 from each bottle of our coveted Grenache towards cancer research. And if you're not familiar with the V Foundation, Jim Valvano, also known as Jimmy V. He was a coach and a broadcaster.

He was also a Rutgers University alum, just like me. And he was diagnosed with cancer at age 40. And if you've not seen his speech from the ESPY awards, look it up right now. Just Jimmy V. S.B.

or you can go to their website v.org and it'll link to it. But it's one of the most inspiring speeches I've seen.

And I had seen it years ago and watched it again recently when I was deciding about this partnership and it confirmed that, yes, this is who I want to work with.

And I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the V Foundation right now because if my wish gets granted, I will be coming to you soon with an interview with one of my partners from the V Foundation and we can talk more about it. But this whole overlay to giving back is something that I've wanted to do.

And this Grenache that left my hands.

Today represents that being live and going into the world. And it's a big deal and it's really special.

I'm also going to be coming to you soon with one of your favorite repeat guests on Sip with nikki, and that's Dr. Hobie Wedler. Hobie has not yet tasted the Grenache he tasted in the early Sages out of the barrel, but not since it's been bottled.

So I thought it might be fun for us to sit down and hear what he has to say. So we're getting together next weekend, and I will stick a microphone in front of him. He doesn't mind that at all.

But before we do any of that, I wanted to back up to why Grenache and what is Grenache?

Because one of the things I've learned, not only being a fan of this grape and drinking it for a while, but then deciding to add it to our very small and limited portfolio of wine that we make is people are like, oh, Grenache. Like, is that red? Have I had that before?

We're gonna take a few minutes, get back to the basics of the characteristics of this grape and why Michael and I are so passionate about drinking it and making it for all of you.

And then I'll come back to you after that with some next steps and how you can get your hands on one of our 886 bottles that we made, although many of them pulled away from my driveway 20 minutes ago. So the next few minutes is an encore release of what I shared over a year ago.

But again, I know there's a lot of you who have just found us and may not have made it back that far in the catalog. I hope that you do. There's lots of good stuff as we are approaching episode 100 in the next couple weeks. Holy cow.

So take a listen to what you need to know about this grape and why it should be in your glass.

We recently had some friends over for dinner, and Michael was cooking his famous smash burgers and twice fried French fries, watching the football game.

And our friends were like, oh, Grenache.

We're like, just recently hearing about this, and we served them Grenache. And they were. They were really wowed by it and how well it went with the food spread that we had for the night.

And so it got me thinking that we know Grenache. It's on our radar. I don't think a lot of you know it. So I wanted to give you some.

Quick facts about it to help you.

Understand it, learn a little more about it, and then give you recommendations of some of my favorites.

What's interesting is that so many wine drinkers are not really familiar with it, and yet Grenache is one of the world's most widely planted red grapes. From Spain, where it's originally from and.

Where it's referred to as Garnacha, to.

France to Australia, and of course, here in California. There's a lot of Grenache acreage on this planet, yet historically, it was used as a blending grape.

A very famous region that Uses Grenache as a blending grape is Chateau Neuf du Pap. Ooh, say it again. Chateauneuf du Pape.

When I was getting my wine certification and years ago, learning about the different regions, that was always a fun one to say.

Chateauneuf du Pape in France, if you've ever heard of people refer to a wine as a GSM blend, the Grenache is the G. So in Chateauneuf du Pape region of France, they often blend Grenache, Syrah and Morvedre, three different grapes. And we call it affectionately a gsm. So Grenache is the G. And the.

Cool thing about this grape is that.

You'Ll see it in its red form. We drink a lot of that. It also can be blanc. Right. So there is a white version of it. And one of my favorite types of to drink is of Grenache.

If you go back to the all day episodes, you will hear a little bit more about how is made and the different kinds and some of my favorites and I talk a little bit about it there.

But it's very cool that this grape can really be drank in all three forms from red to white to one of the things that I've always loved about Grenache. And this is not gonna be a surprise to you at all if you know me or have been listening to some of these podcasts.

We, in this household and in our circle of friends here living in Sonoma county, we are all about the food and the wine together. And what we love about Grenache is that it's really versatile.

So first, let's talk about why.

What makes a wine versatile as far as pairing with food? So first of all, it does not have a lot of tannin. Tannin, of course, coming from the skin of the grape, giving you the dry, chalky astringency.

Think Cabernet Sauvignon. That's one of the more tannic grapes. Grenache is definitely a lot lower tannin than that.

On a scale of low to high tannin, I'm gonna put most Grenache just right in the middle. So right away it just makes it a little more accessible, a little bit more approachable, a little bit more drinkable, doesn't need food.

But when it comes to pairing with food, the fact that it has low tannin increases the spectrum of the types of things it can pair with in the glass. The color's fairly light, so it's not unlike Pinot Noir. If you're familiar with that. It can be very sort of ruby pink.

In the glass, depending on where it's from.

So even as a red wine, it literally looks lighter in the glass, almost to the point where you might be able to see through it in the glass like a Pinot Noir. But the acidity, lip smacking freshness that I always talk about pairing with food is definitely a little bit on the higher side.

It's got that brightness to it, which really makes it a great pairing with rich foods like stewed meats and pizza and smash burgers.

But it has a medium body, so.

Different than Pinot Noir, it's a little bit heavier and richer in the mouth. Not heavy in flavor, but heavy in body. Remember, when we talk about body in wine, think of the milk scale. Skim 1%, 2%, whole half and half cream.

I don't know where the oats and the almond milks go in there. I'm sticking to the cow milk for this analogy. Right.

But obviously you can think about how different a skim milk weight, viscosity, body feels in your mouth than a whole milk or a half and half. Grenache is kind of in the medium plus body. I would put Grenache like almost 2%.

So it has just a nice rich, velvety mouth coating texture without being too bold and having too many tannins on the finish.

And.

And then very often the notes that you will get out of Grenache are very berry and very cherry, right. Red fruits, bright fruits like cherry and strawberry, but really bright fruits.

There's also a very specific note that I sometimes find in Grenache, and I love it, probably cause it's nostalgic and it's almost like grape soda, right? Like that. I think of that purple can of Welch's grape soda growing up. And Grenache will sometimes have that note for me.

But here's what's so interesting and pleasing about it. It's not just fruity in the glass. Then there's another layer of sort of earthy, spicy dried herbs, lavender.

Sometimes there's even citrusy notes like blood orange or orange. And then one of the things I love, and it's subtle.

And if you have not thought about this, don't be turned off when I say this, but notes of tar or leather, like think of a freshly paved road. They just repaved all of the roads here in my neighborhood.

And I literally was like, I love that smell.

And of course, who doesn't love the smell of leather, right? So what about a little hint of that underneath that bright cherry or grape soda note? I call it tar and cherries.

Really fun, fun way to think about the flavor profile and the aromatics of Grenache. Now, I mentioned Chateauneuf du Pape earlier again. I know you just wanted me to say it again. I know.

And when Grenache is part of the blend with Syrah and Mourveitre, generally that's gonna be a little bit of a richer, darker style, especially depending on how much Syrah is in that blend. Syrah has a richness to it and a savoriness to it. More veggies, which is a lesser known grape, almost has a meatiness to it.

So the descriptions that I just gave are generally going to be for a wine that's 100% Grenache or very Grenache driven, whereas a GSM is going to be all of that gorgeousness, but just in a richer expression because of those other two grapes bringing that to the party. The first wine that I ever made, and this was at home in buckets in glass carboys, was of Grenache.

So Rose of Grenache has always had a special place for me because of that. So currently, my favorite of Grenache is from Territorium Wines.

And this is a friend of mine, Jim Duane, who's a winemaker here in the Napa Valley, and he makes a killer of Grenache.

It's around the $28 price point, and it's actually from El Dorado, which is an area here in California that I feel like we're starting to hear more about. Not just Napa and Sonoma, but there's other counties and regions and Appalachians and AVAs.

Translation Wine areas here in California that are really growing some fantastic grapes and producing some great wines. So Jim makes his of Grenache for Territorium wines.

And that is from El Dorado, which is from Placer county, which is northeast of here, going towards Sacramento. And it's kind of between Sacramento and Reno, actually. So listen to Jim's tasting notes, Winemaker tasting notes on this. Of Grenache.

It somehow walks a fine line of bright and crisp while still maintaining a juiciness of fruit flavors that leave your mouth watering. The dominant flavors in the wine are characterized by grapefruit, lemongrass, strawberry and cucumber.

Notes of watermelon, peach blossom and lime can be found too. And the structure is driven by the crisp acidity and short palate. Cleansing finish.

This wine is meant to be enjoyed by itself, but can pair with lighter food just as well as a sunny patio and good friends. Dude. Jim, shout out beautiful tasting notes for a beautiful wine. So I'll put the link in the show notes.

Just pale and bright and juicy and really refreshing, especially on a hot day.

By the way, in case you haven't listened to other episodes where I've broken this down, when we hear about hints of coffee and vanilla in a wine that's generally coming from barrel aging and wines that have aged in French oak barrels that are toasted on the inside, that's going to evoke those notes of coffee, vanilla, and always just a friendly reminder. Whether we're talking about notes of berries or leather or lavender or plums, none of those things are actually in the wine.

They're not added to the wine. That's the magic of wine, as I always call it, is the chemistry of all these compounds that are in there and created through fermentation and aging.

They mirror and they remind us of aromas and flavors that we recognize from fruits and flowers and herbs. And that's just so cool, isn't it? I'll put the link in the show notes so you can find that and have it shipped.

If you listened to our Harvest episode.

A couple weeks back or the one where I interviewed Travis Ramazotti, then you're familiar with me talking about the Ramazotti.

Family and how they are our grape growers for the wines that we make. And they make a fantastic Grenache Noir, which is one of our favorite wines in their wine club.

But at this time of recording, it's sold out, it's not available. It's a very small production and it's usually just for the wine club.

But I would be remiss if I did not shout out another beautiful Sonoma County Grenache. It's Ramazati.

I'll put their website in the show notes and check out their new tasting room in Geyserville, and maybe you can convince Travis and the team there to pour you a little bit of Grenache. Tell them Nikki sent ya.

I also find that red Grenache is a really great Thanksgiving wine, and I always get so many questions about what wine should be on the table for Thanksgiving. In fact, I probably should do a whole episode on that. Stay tuned. But you know, when we talk about food and wine pairing, Thanksgiving can be.

Tricky because how many different things are on your Thanksgiving table.

Besides the bird, think of all the different side dishes, vegetables, starches, sauces, herbs. It's, you know, there's a lot of flavors going on, which is what we love about Thanksgiving, right?

How many flavors on one plate is a really great Thanksgiving wine because it's a crowd pleaser and super versatile and just kind of sits in the pocket with all those different cornucopias of flavors there. Cornucopia is like a Thanksgiving thing. See what I did there?

I've posted a lot of videos recently about this wine and the color in the glass is just beautiful, almost ruby red. And it has that lively fruitiness, that fresh acidity.

Very different flavor profile than the Sangiovese that we've been making, which is why it's such a nice compliment. The fruit is redder, if that makes sense.

The fruit is like we said, those red fruits like cherry, strawberry, whereas the Sangiovese goes from like dark cherry into maybe some blue fruit and black fruit notes.

And we've been drinking probably more of it than we should because it's so good and we have a house full of it as we're preparing all of your packages.

We had it for Thanksgiving with our dear friends last week, as you heard us talk about, with spicy food with Michael's hot sauce and and tacos the other night. And recently we did a doordash of some Thai food and it was fantastic with that as well.

So check out solavatowines.com to learn more about the Grenache and you can click on the philanthropy page of our website to learn more about my breast cancer battle this year and our partnership with the VI Foundation. Make sure that you use the discount code podlistener for 10% off your purchase.

And I can ship to most states across the US if you're not already on our Solavato mailing list, make sure that you sign up for our emails. It's less than one email a month. I should do more, but I don't because it's just me.

But in addition to the ongoing discount code for podcast listeners that I just mention, 10% off, there are from time to time different specials that our email list community gets to take advantage of, especially shipping specials, which we're running right now. I hope that you've got a new appreciation for Grenache. Try it in all of its forms. Look for it in the store, look.

For it on a menu.

Try it, especially if you go somewhere where they have tastings and wines by the glass, but you won't see ours anywhere except on our website. And it would be my honor to pack up your baby and send it off with David, the UPS guy, to bring joy to your table and impact to the V Foundation.

Because, frankly, I'm tired of talking about cancer. I don't know about you. So it's time for victory over cancer. Whatever you do between now and next time we're together, I hope that you sip well.