As told by Mikey Smith, Roshambo Winery’s cellar rat/winemaker, and official “good time guy.”

For ages, Carignane (pronounced ‘karin-YAN’) was the most most widely planted red wine grape in the world. The high-yielding fruit is heavy in acidity, tannins and color, which makes it ideal for blending, but… not always so great for drinking. Because of its reputation as a blending grape, the joke is that Carignane is “always the bridesmaid, never the bride.” Jancis Robinson, editor of The Oxford Companion to Wine, has even gone so far as to call the grape “the bane of the European wine industry.” Though she does note that old Carignane vines with interesting terroir can produce distinctive, characterful wines. The point is, there is a lot of Carignane in the world… and most of it sucks. But with so many Carignane plantings out there, there’s the occasional gem.

Cut to the fall of 2004, when an Alexander Valley grape grower named Jerry Angeli showed up at our facility with a bin of freshly-picked Carignane. He didn’t have a buyer lined up for the fruit, and was essentially going door-to-door. As you might imagine, this isn’t how grapes are usually sold, but “the cellar rats” of our winemaking team immediately saw the potential. The fruit was outstanding. Carignane is one of those vines that produce a better wine the worse they look, and his vines were hideous - gnarled, twisted beasts planted in dead-looking soil. What few grapes he had growing on them were small, sad looking things. PERFECT, we thought. And so, we rallied support from our quarterback, Naomi, and started making a small lot of Carignane for our Party Army Wine Club. She even named it in honor of us cellar rats who championed the fruit. Our ‘04 and ‘05 vintages were stellar, and after imbibing in the soon-to-be released 2006 vintage this evening, we’re just as excited. With aromas of blueberry, black cherry, sweet smoke, cinnamon, and nutmeg, “the rat” is finally ready to step up to the alter, pull back her veil, and kiss all the naysayers goodbye.

The Bohemian, our North Bay alt-weekly, just spotlighted us as their “Tasting Room of the Week.” Here’s an excerpt…

“Many of us may be asking the question, where did Roshambo go? A winery is usually the epitome of solid, long-standing institution. Yet this paradigm-shifting winery is in a state of flux, neither here nor there. Look, is that a Roshambus carrying a party army into the night? You’ll recall that the “old winery” was practically brand-new when sold to Silver Oak. Now, we find the wine country’s hippest tasting room under Blue Tree…” Click HERE to read the rest of the story.

In other exciting news… Naomi Brilliant will be featured in a piece in the February issue of Wine Enthusiast. Local sharpshooter Craig Clement snapped photos of our Wine Hero, and while we didn’t send this one to the magazine, we thought you might appreciate it. It’s just so… so, Roshambo.