Wine of the Week: Have your cake, and drink it too

Cupcake Vineyards, somewhat uniquely, brags about their lack of local produce. Seem strange? The idea is that not all grapes are equal, and so growing a variety of strains in the same location is essentially ensuring that not all of those grapes will be thriving in their ideal environment. Instead, Cupcake Vineyards doesn’t grow any fruit, but rather imports each particular variety from a region that ensures ideal growing conditions for that strain. Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot all come from California’s Central Coast while the Sauvignon Blanc comes from the cooler climate of the Marlborough valley of New Zealand. It’s an interesting approach to winemaking; Cupcake Vineyards offers several varieties including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc, and boasts that all their wines are truly the crème of the crop, even if the crop isn’t their own.

Cupcake Vineyards’ ‘Red Velvet’ is a blended wine consisting of Zinfandel, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon grape varieties all grown in the heart of Monterey County California. It offers a semi-sweet, fruit-filled, berry flavor with hints of rich cocoa with an initial taste very much reminiscent of (unsurprisingly) red velvet cake. The wine’s deep hues of vibrant red and smoky maroon are also evocative of fresh beet juice, which used to be the ingredient of choice for creating the “red” in red velvet cake, you know, before the invention of Red #5. The finish to this glass, however, is not entirely harmonious with its introduction, and lingers on the tongue as a pronounced dryness with an earthy musk, a slight oakiness, and a hint of spice, which is not unpleasant, but is inconsistently jarring with its original sultry sweetness and its sugary title. ‘Red Velvet’ is a medium bodied wine, paring well with a dish that already packs its own punch, such as BBQ chicken pizza or a rich chocolate dessert. The Cupcake Vineyards website has a great recipe pairing guide, expertly matching a unique entrée or dessert recipe with one of their distinct wine varieties. Unfortunately, they don’t offer a pairing for the mixed varieties, so you’re just going to have to trust this reviewer’s assertion that barbeque pizza and ‘Red Velvet’ wine is way delicious.

All in all, this wine went down easy, but its wow factor is a bit of a cheap thrill. It's certainly a good sip, but, like its cake namesake, is not the most sophisticated creation.