País

País (pie EECE) is the historic grape behind Chile’s table wines. Originally known as criolla chica, pais (the name means “country”) is the same as California’s mission grape. Based on DNA typing, both pais and misson are the Spanish grape listán prieto, brought to Chile, Mexico, and Argentina in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Spanish conquistadores and missionaries.

In a recent survey of 2,000 adults, nearly 30% thought Sauternes was:

A. A French cream sauce for fish or asparagus

B. The French version of sauerkraut

C. A type of orange

D. A type of Mediterranean bird

When the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) recently surveyed 2000 Britons, 29% believed that the famous French sweet wine Sauternes was “a type of orange.” Twenty percent of respondents thought it was a beach resort. And seven percent thought it was a plant. It appears that wine education is not quite yet a fait accompli.

“I kind of grew up being the only [Black person] around. By the time I entered the wine industry, I was already comfortable being the only one, and I look at it as a position of power because people are going to know your name whether you’re in the room or not.”

—Brenae Royal, promoted at the age of 23, by E&J Gallo to vineyard manager of its historic 130-year-old Monte Rosso vineyard in Sonoma County, California. She is also one of the Wine Enthusiast’s 40 Under 40 Tastemakers for 2020.

País

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