Put away your scalpels and close the formaldehyde! The 2010 Viognier is ready for you, in a spuzzy new package and everything - so with the help of some Disembodied Rubber Chicken Heads*, let's dissect this puppy**:
A (that would be the DRCH with the letter "A" in it): Topping things off is an easy-access twist-off cap, thus averting the need to use a smelly shoe or pointed stick to open your wine if you forget your corkscrew.
B: A snappy new front label! Now anyone, including nearsighted vintners, can spot a bottle of Twisted Goodness from clear across the room. And there is our lovely signature Twisted Oak, front and center. And by popular demand, a vintage date!
C: Inside the bottle is 100% Viognier from Jim Dalton's vineyard, located outside of Angels Camp off Dogtown Road (the same vineyard that produces the Mourvedre for the River of Skulls). This 2010 Viognier represents the last vintage harvested before Jim passed away last fall at a much too early age. Please raise a glass of this Viognier to Jim when you get a chance.
D: Now every back label sports the Calaveras County appellation. Everything locally grown, baby!
E: A new feature of the back label: a QR code. What, you might ask (and rightly might you ask) is a QR code? A QR code is a lot like a regular bar code (see H below) but it can hold a lot more information - in this case it contains the web page address for this Viognier. And, you can scan a QR code using almost any "smart" phone that has a camera and the application that supports it. (On an iPhone you have to install the application - here is my favorite free scanner that works pretty well - but on an Android based phone I am told it is built in.) You can even scan it from the screen right now - try it!
F: Famous Twisted Oak witty label copy. No florid frou frou prose here. Feel free to sing along!
G: G is for Gummint. You'll notice that a large chunk of the label consists of content required by the government. Put down the heavy machinery and no one gets pregnant. Or something like that.
H: The good old fashioned UPC bar code we all grew up with. Our Viognier has the distinction of being our code number 00001, since Viognier was the first wine released from our first (2002) vintage. The same bar code is used for all vintages, that's how the stores roll.
I: That is the AVIN number, which is a new ISBN-like numbering system for wines. Each wine and vintage has a different AVIN number. This is supposed to help positively identify each wine and vintage, if that's important to you. I had room at the bottom and thought, what the heck, I'll help out.
So there you have it. The 2010 Viognier is now on sale at both tasting rooms, online, and should start showing up in stores very soon. If you try it and like it, please consider posting a review on our Twisted web site. Have fun!
* No rubber chickens were harmed in the making of this blog post.
** No puppies either. Jeez.
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