WineSpeed | Clementine Carter

CLEMENTINE CARTER |  Grenache Blanc 2016

(Santa Barbara County, CA) $25

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What does fresh actually mean? Is it the lifted aroma of a flower? The vivid wetness of a fruit? The brisk scent of the ocean? The clean feel of cool morning air? Or maybe it can be all of these—as it is in this terrific wine from the small Santa Barbara producer Clementine Carter. Grenache blanc, well known in southern France, is fairly rare in California. And it’s a temperamental grape. But when you get it right (like this), it makes a delicious wine of purity and, yes, total freshness. (13% abv)

90 points KM

Available at K&L Wine Merchants

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More Wines to Know…

What is Puliniacus?

A. A heritage strain of yeasts used in the 18th century when Champagne as we know it began
B. The name of a Roman poet who wrote about the beneficial relationship between wine and the emotions
C. The name of a village that later became known as Puligny-Montrachet
D. A type of rot that can overtake botrytis cinerea in the vineyard, potentially devastating sweet wine production in the vineyard affected  

Here’s the answer…

“People who say, ‘You can’t drink the good stuff all the time’ are talking rubbish. You must drink good stuff all the time. Every time you drink a bottle of inferior wine it’s like smashing a superior bottle against the wall. The pleasure is lost forever. You can’t get the bottle back.”

―Len Evans (1930-2006), Founder of Australian Wine Bureau, Columnist for The Australian Women’s Weekly

In response to our Ask Karen about what glass is made of, our friend the Stanford geologist David Howellsays:

“Glass is not made from sand, or at least not common sand which is composed of lots of stuff: feldspar, rock fragments, and yes, some quarts. Glass is from pure quartz plus calcium and sodium that you mentioned to give it a higher melting point. Yes, quartz is part of most sands, but only in a few places, such as some of the Great Lakes beaches, is sand pure quartz (SiO2). The sand on the beaches of Hawaii are pure basalt fragments.”

Pouilly-Fuissé and Pouilly-Fumé are neighboring villages in France.

Answer: False. The shortest driving distance between the village of Fuissé in Burgundy, one of four villages that make the wine called Pouilly-Fuissé, and Pouilly-sur-Loire in the Loire Valley, the village where the wine Pouilly-Fumé is made, is 144 miles. Pouilly-Fuissé is known for its chardonnay, and Pouilly-Fumé for its sauvignon blanc.

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