Not so long back I wrote about Heavy Rock and Wine as AC/DC launched a wine collection following on the grand tradition of Whitesnake, Iron Maiden, Motorhead et al. Now new has hit that Grateful Dead have produced a new wine: Steal Your Face Red Blend. Steal Your Face Red Blend joins the ranks of The Rolling Stones Forty Licks Merlot, Woodstock Chardonnay, The Police’s Synchronicity Red Blend and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon at Wines That Rock .
The Steal Your Face Red Blend is a 2009 blend of 73.5% Syrah, 12% Petite Sirah, 7.5% Zinfandel & 7% Grenache from vineyards in Mendocino, California and is aged in seasoned French oak and Redwood tanks for 20 months. The tasting notes say that it is a “distinctively unique mix of black cherries, peppered bacon with a velvety vanilla and caramel finish.”
Wines That Rock began releasing the labels in 2009, with a portion of the proceeds from every bottle sold donated to the TJ Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research.
Winemaker Mark Beaman said the process of creating the Steal Your Face Red began by listening and discovering the vibe and intricacies of the Grateful Dead during their legendary multi-night performance at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom in 1974:
“To capture the essence of the live energy for Grateful Dead’s ‘Steal Your Face,’ we chose to meld several varietals into one. Just as the band members would segue through various musical styles, this wine’s far reaching flavours melt seamlessly from one to the next. In honour of the Grateful Dead’s famous improvisational concerts that have brought joy to so many, this wine celebrates diversity and freedom of experimentation.”
Wines That Rock co-founder Ron Roy said that:
“Grateful Dead encompass so much of what the 60’s and 70’s meant to our culture through music, and were truly the first band to establish a worldwide sense of community through their live shows – they were really all about the experience.”
The Mendocino Winery, under the guidance of partners Paul Dolan, Tim and Tom Thornhill, is dedicated to responsible land stewardship, sustainable viticulture, and green business practices. In the spring of 2007, Mendocino Wine Co. became the first winery in the United States to achieve carbon neutral status. The Winery uses on-site solar power and wind energy and Wines That Rock use green packaging – the wine labels are recycled paper and they are printed with soy and water based inks. Their wines are available from their website and retail outlets in the USA.
Incidentally it seems that Grateful Dead enjoyed the odd bottle of Bordeaux backstage after their concerts. At the Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead Memorabilia Auction back in 2007 one of the lots was a large collection of wine (approximately 125 bottles) left over from backstage at numerous Grateful Dead concerts during the 1970′s – 1990′s. Looking at the image I spotted a bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1973!
