Grenache Blanc Time
TASTING NOTES: “Grenache Blanc produces a rich wine with tremendous body and crisp acidity. Our 2020 vintage emphasizes the variety’s fruit-infused aromatics — yellow apple, citrus, quince and pear with hints of green melon. The palate is medium-bodied and structured with a lingering bright fruit finish, thanks to the wine’s natural viscosity and ample, crisp acidity.” (AbV 12.5%, pH 3.29, TA 4.4 g/L)
VARIETALS: 100% Grenache Blanc
BARRELS: 3 months in stainless steel.
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT.
I referenced it with a Grenache sale about four years ago, but I’ll add some slightly different info for it. So Greenwich Mean Time was the standard time zone for England. Still technically is. It was determined by the passing of the sun over the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. But not exactly.
See, originally they calculated the time from noon, when the sun would theoretically be at its zenith in the sky over the observatory. However, the sun doesn’t always end up in the same spot at noon. Since the Earth has an uneven angular velocity due to the tilt and elliptical orbit. But that’s why it’s called “mean” time. They determined where noon would be by using the mean of all the times the sun was at its peak during a year.
Eventually GMT would be replaced by Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), since the majority of the world starts its time scale at midnight rather than noon, which was a quirk GMT had been associated with. Despite this replacement, however, England and its affiliates will still use the acronyms interchangeably.
