What red/white blends have you tried?

Like Ken Zinns mentioned in hus Brumaire thread, there is a nascent trend of blends between red and white at some of these events. I tried local LA based winery Discovino’s Free Your Mind, which is a Carignan/Riesling blend. It was fantastically drinkable and had an electrically bright red juice, almost like one of those Gatorades or Vitamin Waters. At the Raw Wine LA fair last year there were also a few I tried, but can’t recall what they were called. I made the mistake of not spitting during that fair, so I was ‘trollied’ (as they say in England) by the end of it and could barely find my way out.

Anyone tried any of these?

Copain makes a 50/50 blend of Pinot Noir/Pinot Gris called P2. A friend and I used to buy quite a bit of it as a chilled summer red.

Adam, here is one that is different and delicious. It is called “Feints” from Ruth Lewandowski Wines. Evan Lewandowski is adept at making unusual blends that just work! Here is a description straight from the website:

“Working at once with all of the Piedmontese varieties found at Fox Hill, Feints is quite an unexpected wine. It’s a co-fermentation of Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo and Arneis…yes, three reds and a white (and nearly 50% white each year)! Full carbonic maceration keeps things poppy, light on its feet and fresh. For all intents and purposes this is the complex light red wine go-to and truly couldn’t be more gluggable”.

I believe the 2018 was just released (or will be very soon).

Tom

It may be a trend in some parts of the US, but it’s very old school in Spain. I’ve had plenty. Try a rosado from Muga, Faustino, Lopez de Heredia, Bodegas las Orcas, Bodgas Ostatu, Viña Real or many others, and that’s exactly what you’ll be getting.

Dominio IV makes a Viognier with Syrah added called the Inverse, because it reverses the proportions of Cote Rotie inspired Syrahs with Viognier.
It is interesting, much weightier than a white wine, and not at all resembling a rose. It’s most suitable for when you want red fruit flavors, but you want the wine chilled.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Chianti.

Good call - really like this one.

As well as Champagne, Cote Rotie and a few Australian blends. Clonakilla uses Viognier. I am sure there are others.

What Adam is referring to in his original post is not something like Côte-Rôtie, but a wine with large percentages of both red and white varieties. Champagne and many other sparklers would qualify though the question here is really about still wines.

Just off the top of my head, there’s La Clarine Farm “Mo-Ma” blend of Mourvèdre and Marsanne, and Vesper “Mar-Cin” that’s Marsanne and Cinsaut. One I recall from Brumaire was the Zumo “Flower Face” Tempranillo-Muscat blend, and I’m sure I came across others at that tasting too.

One fun bottling is Julien Guillot’s Cuvée 910 - Chardonnay, Gamay, Pinot Noir, and possibly some other things, made as Julien imagines the monks who first cultivated his estate made their wines. The 2018 is fleshy and delicious.

Clonakilla is definitely the poster child for red/white blends in Australia but there are no shortage of them. Mostly, the % of Viogner is pretty low in these sorts of blends as it tends to stick out a bit (often too much for my liking). Unsurprisingly, Yalumba does more than one version, given they have more or less championed Viognier here.
It would be interesting to have a look at the Ravensworth Shiraz Viogner given that Bryan Martin’s day job is at Clonakilla. He also makes a blend called the Tinderry where the 2018 at least was a blend of Cab Franc and Sauv Blanc. I haven’t tried either, but on the strength of some of his other wines I’d give them a go.

Flowers perennial-pinot noir, syrah, pinot meunier, chardonnay.

Thanks for the tip William. Reading a bit about this Cuvée it sounds pretty delicious especially during the dog days of summer.

Tom

Just checking my notes from this year’s Brumaire tasting in Oakland, and spotted one more that has not already been noted above - Caleb Leisure’s 2018 “Ab Ovo” blend of 70% Mourvèdre + 30% Marsanne.

Does Cote-Rotie count?
Also in quite a few CdP is a tiny amount of white grapes, in Chianti less and less Canaiolo is used, but there are still some.

I had the K Vintners Charlotte recently. Essentially a Rhone blend but with a small percentage of Picpoul and Grenache Blanc in the mix. I drank it over several days. Certainly a novel wine and plenty of expression there but ultimately the white additions were just a little too jarring for me.

Not really what’s being discussed here, as noted earlier. The wines Adam and I both have in mind have significant percentages of both red and white varieties. I believe the smallest percentage of either red or white in the blends I’ve mentioned in this discussion is 25% white in the Zumo “Flower Face” - others have 30% or more of a white variety or varieties in the blend.

The 2018 is a bit high-octane for Summer, despite the lack of tannin, I’m going to drink mine this Fall.

Does a Pinot Gris made as a red wine count? Vincent Fritzsche has one, which I have not tasted.

No, whole different category - that would be more of an orange wine. I’ve worked on a couple of skin-fermented Pinot Gris wines in the past.

Really looking at wines with at least one red and one white variety in a blend, with a significant percentage of each included (let’s say minimum 25-30% white variety or varieties, since many of these blends tend to include somewhat more red than white).