I woke up this morning to a beautiful overcast fall day, and a crisp wind blowing in from the North. This means that it's time to start buying wine for all the autumn parties I'll be attending in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. It's just bad form to show up to a party without a bottle for the host, and why not grab one that's fun? One of my distributors brought in a bottle of Bitch Grenache this week, and the ten dollar price tag belies the quality of the wine behind the silly label. Their packaging is irreverent, and the joke has already made the Bitch a huge hit as a fun gift.

The man behind the name is a contributing editor from Food & Wine magazine, Dan Phillips. Dan is known as Captain Bacon in the foodie circles because he's the king of recognizing quality in cured pork products. His company, The Grateful Palate offers 30+ bacons from smaller American farmhouse producers. This summer the company moved into wine with a goal of making the buying as storied as the drinking. Alissa Walker at Metropolis has a great overview of the work that the designers put into offering Captain Bacon's products in the unique presentations that his plan requires.

Grenache is planted in almost every wine producing country, and is primarily used as blending stock to give dense reds a lighter note. A great example would be French Châteauneuf-du-Papes; the soft fruity underside to the estate bottlings is entirely attributable to masterful blending with Grenache Noir. This Grateful Palate Bitch bottling is an easy drinker with lots of round currants and no wood; so it's great for dinner or just slugging away with friends. I love to use 100% Grenache bottles to start dinner tastings because the light tongue presence doesn't burn out the palette, and it's a nice leisurely start when working towards main course bottles of Bordeaux.