Seven Jugs Later
TASTING NOTES: “As we now produce Cab Franc and Petit Verdot, these have found their way in to our Sonoma County Cab blend. These new varietal additions augment the rich, brawny fruit from the Mayacamas range Cabernets, giving more complexity and smoothing out some edges. Subtle aromas of cassis, blackberries, plum, with hints of new French oak vanilla and herbs. The flavors mimic the aromas and flow seamlessly from entrance to a very long finish with aging potential beyond 15 years. By 2030, the 2023 Sonoma County Cab will be singing!” (AbV 14%, pH 3.6, TA 5.73 g/L)
VARIETALS: Cabernet Sauvignon
BARRELS: 15% new French Oak
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Enkidu, the winery’s name, borrowed from the wild man of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The oldest great story we have has a very specific theory of how you turn a wild man into a citizen. Enkidu starts out living with the gazelles, drinking at their watering hole, covered in hair. The fix involves a temple worker named Shamhat, some days of her company, and then a meal. He’s handed bread, which he stares at like it’s a riddle, and beer, which he’s never seen either. The text has him put away seven jugs, and he comes out of it cheerful, singing, and ready to be washed, oiled, and dressed. Then he heads off to the city. Civilization, per the Babylonians: a carb, a pint, and a grooming appointment.
I love that the first recorded domestication of a human happens at what is basically a very early happy hour. Mesopotamia took beer seriously enough to give it a patron goddess, Ninkasi, whose hymn doubles as a brewing recipe from roughly 1800 BCE. The gazelles, meanwhile, notice the change right away and stop running with him. He’s too clean, and honestly, fair. I want to know more about the gazelles’ side of this.
