Wine writer Allison Levine of Please the Palate and the Napa Valley Register recently published the article, “The Wonderful World of Weird Wines.” In it, Levine describes a recent virtual tasting happy hour event she hosted, featuring several other wine writers, bloggers and reviewers from around the country. The theme? “Weird” wines, as in unusual varietals or bottles.
Allison Levine’s “Weird Wine” tasting group.
Writes Levine:
When I say “weird,” I am talking about a wine that would be considered unique because of the grape variety or blend, the region it is from, the packaging or label, or the story behind it. At this past week’s Virtual Wine Tasting with my wine friends around the country, this is what I challenged everyone to do. I asked them to pull out one of the more unique wines in their cellars and share with us.
What inspired me to this theme is that I have a number of interesting wines here at home that I have acquired over the years. Some have been picked up during travels, others have been left over from events I have hosted and some have been gifts.
Participating in this call were our friends Mary Cressler and Sean Martin of Ember & Vine / Vindulge, and authors of Fire+Wine. (You may remember they helped us host our very first winemaker dinner here at the winery.) The pair happened to have a bottle of our Seyval Blanc, and enjoyed/shared it while on the call Levine writes:
Mary Cressler and Sean Martin, authors of Fire + Wine, enjoyed the Bells Up Winery 2019 Helios Seyval Blanc from the Willamette Valley. Seyval Blanc is a hybrid wine grape variety that is used to make white wines. It is grown mainly in England and the East Coast and Bells Up Winery is the first and only winery to plant it in the Willamette Valley. Similar, yet unrelated, to Sauvignon Blanc, the wine is more subtle and pairs well with grilled fish or smoke trout.
