THINK YOU KNOW WHICH ROCK STARS ARE FEATURED IN THIS PHOTO?
E-mail your responses to purplereignwine@yahoo.com.
Correct responses win a P.R.I. prize!

The wine featured here is Betts and Scholl's Barossa Valley Grenache called "The Chronique," named after Dr. Dre's legendary The Chronic, (courtesy of one of the winemakers, Richard Betts).
  
 
 
ROCK STAR WINE TASTINGS
Wines are disguised in the identity of a particular rock star, so that you have no external influences. These influences often include critics' ratings, how pretty the label is and what you heard on television. P.R.I. has discovered that through these tastings, people who spend astronomical amounts of money on Cristal, for example, sometimes like that ubiquitous Cava found on supermarket shelves (Freixenet). Our goal: For you to trust your own palate. Become your own wine critic. Set your own standards.

How The System Was Born:

So what does Aretha and Bordeaux have in common? Stevie Nicks and Tempranillo? A lot. Throughout my journey I’ve discovered an amazing connection between wine and music. Reds, for example, built from older vines and older regions like Bordeaux and Rioja tend to have a real depth of complexity. In addition to the fruit characters, they boast aromas and flavors of jerk spices, Madras curry, salmon tartar, Jamaican red dirt and my ex-boyfriends arm pit. Because their vines have been around for 60, 70 and 100 years and have expressed so much, their music is deep and complex like the odes of Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Cliff, Stevie Nicks and The Rolling Stones.

On the other hand, I have discovered that Reds from newer regions---The Barossa and Napa Valleys, Mendoza and Rapel offer rich, racy ripe fruit flavors of black cherry, black currant preserves and raisins fused with Mexican chocolate and allspice, for example. These unbridled, bold flavors, in their youth and free-spiritedness remind me of Beyonce, Amy Winehouse, Jay-Z and Coldplay.

What kinds of music will you discover on your grape journey?