Cartoons Were Funnier Anyway
TASTING NOTES: “The 2022 Sorridente, meaning “smiling” in Italian, is a joyful and expressive blend crafted to bring a little brightness to the table. This wine bursts with vibrant aromatics, offering a bouquet of fresh, ripe red and dark berries, violets, and a touch of earth. On the palate, flavors of juicy strawberries, blackberry cream, and a hint of spice dance together, creating a wine that is as playful as it is complex. The finish is exceptionally long, with bright acidity and fine tannins, making this an expressive and versatile wine.” (AbV 14.5%)
VARIETALS: 37% Syrah, 30% Primitivo, 18% Merlot, 15% Grenache
BARRELS: The 2022 Sorridente is a vibrant blend of Syrah, Primitivo, Merlot, and Grenache, crafted to showcase the playful harmony between these varietals. Each grape was harvested and fermented separately, allowing the distinct characteristics of each to shine. The wine was aged for 16 months in a combination of French and American oak, balancing fruit intensity with subtle oak influence for a refined finish.
PAIRS WITH: This versatile blend is a perfect match for rich and flavorful dishes. Try pairing it with duck ragù or slow-braised short ribs to highlight the wine’s depth and playful fruit profile. The freshness of the berries and the earthiness of the wine will beautifully complement these hearty dishes
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Sorridente — “smiling” in Italian, as the tasting note helpfully tells us.
There is a genuine philosophical debate about whether smiling causes happiness or happiness causes smiling. The facial feedback hypothesis — the idea that the physical act of smiling can actually generate positive emotion — was a big deal in psychology for decades, anchored by a 1988 study where subjects held a pen in their teeth (forcing a smile) and rated cartoons as funnier than subjects who held the pen in their lips (forcing a frown). Clean, elegant, counterintuitive. Textbook stuff.
Then in 2016, a massive replication effort across 17 labs and 1,894 participants failed to reproduce the effect. The pen study, it turned out, might have been smiling at us this whole time. The hypothesis isn’t dead — other versions of it have survived scrutiny — but the famous pen-in-teeth version is, at minimum, on shaky ground. Which is either a cautionary tale about how desperately we want the world to work a certain way, or a reminder that sometimes the thing making you happy really is just the wine.
ICYMI, you have two choices:
- Worried Summer heat might get to your wine before your wine gets to you? Order from the sale linked here, and we’ll get it to you at a cooler time of year!
- Want it shipped now? Every package during the summer will have protected temp control ground shipping for much of the country that takes longer but will ensure safe delivery. Expect up to two weeks for delivery. Now through the September 12th offer.
