My nominee :Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio
There are two versions as to how this wine got its name. Both stories go back hundreds of years.
The simpler story tells us that when Jesus was ascending to heaven, he glanced down at the earth and saw the Bay of Naples. It was so beautiful that he wept tears of joy. His tears fell on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. A slightly different version relates that when Lucifer and the fallen angels were cast out from heaven, they grabbed a piece of it as they were forced to leave. As Lucifer fell, chunks of paradise landed on Mt. Vesuvius. When Jesus, up in heaven, saw what had happened, he wept tears of sadness. Under either tale, when Jesus’ tears hit the ground, vines miraculously sprouted in those spots on the slopes of the volcano. Those are the vines from which Lacryma Christi is made. Without casting aspersions on the legend, it is, at the least, a beautiful marketing strategy for an Italian wine.
http://www.intowine.com/lacryma-christi-del-vesuvio-fabled-campagna-wine-great-paired-pizza
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The Herman Stories descriptions are always amazing. Here are a couple:
2013 Casual Encounters
There you are making a beautiful camp breakfast over last night’s coals, mottled sunlight coming through the trees, coffee quietly percolating, when a blackberry covered bear crashes through the scene and you abandon everything: huckleberry jam, bresaola, buttermilk biscuits, beef blood, cocoa nibs, new leather deck shoes, blown clutch, brand new 24r 16’’ Goodyear tires, herbs de provence and crushed raspberry bush.
2013 Late Bloomer
It’s prom and you can’t believe Trevor Winchester asked you to go. You check the fresh flower corsage, he arrives and you’re in his parent’s new Lexus heading to the dance on the freshly rained on streets. He’s put on too much of the Bay Rhum cologne, but you like it as you snap your cherry Bubble Yum. Dancing, spiked punch, a sneaky kiss and then you’re drinking huckleberry milkshakes and espresso over ice cream in an old teak wood parlor, waiting for him to make the move.
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Those are great! So evocative of the wines I once drank during a long, beautiful weekend on Lake Erie, surrounded by vineyards and cargo ship loading facilities.
My nominee #2: Burgundy
Cistercians knew quantity is the enemy of quality
Chief among the religious orders were the Cistercians. Countess de Loisy points out, “The Cistercians had more land even than the Burgundy Dukes”. They were against the notion of adding water or any foreign matter to the wine. Wine symbolizes the blood of Christ. “You don’t dilute the blood of Our Lord”. Once wine became less concentrated the issue of its conservation had to be addressed. The monks developed and documented essential wine making techniques - care of the vines, skilled pruning, hygiene, adequate alcohol levels - to prevent the wine turning to vinegar en route to the various parts of order’s wide network of abbeys throughout Europe.
http://www.burgundyeye.com/wine/winegrowers-merchants/beaune-south/burgundy-wine-throughout-the-ages/