Bottle Blues

Just a random thought for today – have you ever wondered what on earth is it with white wines in blue bottles? So many wineries have this striking combination of semi-sweet white wines and deep blue bottles, including the Michigan wineries I’ve worked for – Sandhill Crane has the Overture (depicted in the pic) and my current home of St. Julian has the Blue Heron. Both of these are semi-sweet wines, with moderate acidity and notes of apples and melons, as well as some tropical fruits like pineapple and papaya. They are somewhat reminiscent of German-style wines, and according to the Wine Spectator, it so happens that the trend happened in none other than good ol’ Deutschland, thanks to Blue Nun. 🙂

Traditionally German Rieslings were bottled in green and brown bottles, as an indication of the region where the wine was made (brown = Rheingau, green = Mosel) but in the eighties some German Riesling producers started bottling their wines in blue bottles to make them stand out. Particular among them is the company that owns Blue Nun, which I and fellow Sandhill Crane wine consultant Lisa would invoke comparisons to when we featured our lovely Overture to customers.

Finding this 2012 Overture lurking about brought back those memories. After chilling it in the wine cooler, I gave it a taste. At over 9 years of age it is rather old, and has oxidized somewhat, but nonetheless it still managed to retain enough of its bright, fresh flavor to make it a delight to drink.