For many centuries people have been enamored with gold. The earliest history of human interaction with gold is long lost to us, but its association with the gods, immortality and wealth is common to many cultures throughout the world even today. Early civilizations equated gold with gods and rulers. People almost intuitively place a high value on the lustrous metal, associating it with power, beauty and the cultural elite. And since gold is so widely distributed, we find evidence of this attitude throughout ancient and modern civilizations everywhere.
Gold was money in ancient Greece. The Greeks mined for gold throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East regions by 550 B.C., and both Plato and Aristotle wrote about gold and had theories about its origins. Gold was associated with water (logical, since most of it was found in streams), and it was thought to be a particularly dense combination of water and sunlight. Celtic lore and other ancient legends have taught us to look for the pot of gold at the end of each rainbow.
A great part of California’s history is due to the gold rush of the mid 1800s. It was one of the greatest adventures the world had ever seen. Instant wealth was there for the taking. All across America, young men made the decision to travel to the Sierra Nevada foothills in their quest for gold. Thus a new American dream was born: to find gold and strike it rich.
While I won’t claim to have found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I did find it in a bottle.
Gold Wine, a luscious white wine blend, is infused with flakes of pure gold in a beautiful, clear, French glass bottle that’s labeled in 24-karat gold. It’s like a golden snow globe.
The wine inside is amazingly fresh and aromatic with bright essences of citrus, tropical kiwi and stone fruit. The finish is clean, crisp and refreshing. I would suggest serving it well chilled as an aperitif, pairing it with fresh fruit and a light cheese, such as lemon Stilton.
The idea for Gold derived from vintner Jayson Woodbridge’s quest to bring the freshest possible white wine to the marketplace. The grapes are from two different hemispheres, yet the wines are stylistically identical. Woodbridge wants to create a wine that is made in smaller batches, keeping the sulfur levels low and the fruit alive, like fresh produce. The grapes come from the southern hemisphere (Barossa Valley, South Australia) for release in America’s spring. The next release will be in winter, with grapes from the northern hemisphere (California).
In an effort to prevent the wine from being exposed to heat, the wine from the southern hemisphere is shipped in fermentation tanks in an ocean-going freezer container. Temperature probes are placed inside the containers to give a constant reading (ideally about 25 degrees Fahrenheit) from the time the wine is loaded until it is unloaded at Hundred Acre Winery in the Napa Valley, where it is then infused with gold.
The gold flakes don’t affect the flavor of the wine in any way – they just look great. It’s like having a little “bling” in your glass! Actually, in ancient times some people believed that flakes of gold sprinkled in white wine promised long life and immortality.
The story of Gold is written on the bottle, in pure 24-karat gold. This is definitely a special occasion wine and a must-try for any wine enthusiast.
Gold is available at Broadway Market in Sonoma or at Dean & DeLuca in St. Helena. It retails for about $25 a bottle.
For more information on Gold, go to www.vintagepoint.com/GoldWine on the Web.
Until next time, cheers!
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