Layne’s Wine Gig Presents
SERIOUS BLUEBERRIES
By Layne V. Witherell
Under the moonlight, the serious moonlight
Put on your red shoes and dance the blues.
– “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie
This song is, actually, about fighting, and if anyone is fighting it is this small group of three ex-Rosemont Market heavyweights. They are sending a hard left hook to our current fashionable notions of wine and creating their own version as another vision: why blueberries, of course!
Wine, in general, isn’t faring that well – both in quality and in sales. There is a generation out there that views real wine as both dull and uninteresting. So, why not try something in life beyond seltzer or carbonated vodka-based fruit concoctions?
These clearly aren’t the wines from the Steely Dan song about chugging the bottle, “Mamma… it’s great fruit wine.”
From Bartlett to Bluet to RAS
This isn’t the first time that blueberries have appeared as a serious beverage. Originally, forty years ago in Gouldsboro, Maine there was Bob and Kathe Bartlett producing groundbreaking fruit wines and spirits that were anything but mom’s sweet, cloying, pie filling flavor, but authentic expressions of Maine.
Then there was the second-generation blueberry incarnation in Bluet out of Scarborough (see Layne’s Wine Gig Presents “East Coast Wine Dreamin’”, July 2021, for a Bluet review). Michael Terrien, acclaimed Sonoma, California winemaker, made the blueberry once more into a serious combo of fruit with a touch of funk, both dry with a bit of spritz.
R.A.S. is the third incarnation of the blueberry as an artform. Dan Roche, Joe Appel, and Emily Smith are the three former heavyweight managers from Rosemont Markets. They joined forces to once again reinvent the wild Maine blueberry and insert it into serious wine territory, together with exploration and new inventions.
I recently caught up with Joe Appel, their Director of Sales and Marketing, while making rounds, and he had some time for lunch and a chat.
Interview with Joe Appel, R.A.S.
Layne: Tell us about the beginning. What is your background?
Joe: Like all idealists my college major was in the Humanities.
L: Translate that into a job.
J: I was one of the first Rosemont Market employees when it was Portland’s first Euro-style foods market on Commercial Street called The Greengrocer. We then became Rosemont Market and with the encouragement of the owner I became the wine buyer. As we expanded with more stores my role expanded, tasting and buying more wines.
L: Where did the idea for R.A.S. originate?
J: I was greatly influenced by Michael Terrien’s vision of Bluet as being not only a beverage but the voice of the land; an expressive wine of a place like the grapes and their regions in Europe. Over coffee with Dan Roche, we put together our shared travel, writing, and wine experiences and decided to make a go of it. That was over five years ago. We are still small, but our audience is growing. It was a choice to do something you love now and not later.
TASTING R.A.S. WINES
Check your local fine wine store for availability
WILD
Bubbly, wild Maine blueberries in a can. 250 ml. 7% alcohol. $5.00 per can. Three quarters of a pound of wild Maine blueberries per can! Hand-harvested and foot-crushed with eight months of aging in stainless steel.
Joe: Juiciness and pop song joy, with an intriguing texture and some tannins.
I gave it a long hard thought, knowing that this little can is there to pay the bills to enable their other intriguing experiments. For me, it was a more interesting and serious little can of wine. Pure, spot-on wild Maine blueberries as an artform. Drink this slowly and pay close attention.
BLUISH
It’s $19.49 for 750 ml at 5.5% alcohol and there were only 53 cases in total production. Lightly sparkling cider of wild Maine blueberries with foraged and orchard grown apples. Eight months in used oak barrels with secondary fermentation in the bottle. As with all R.A.S. wines they are both hand harvested and handmade.
Perfect with an outdoor charcuterie board. A Maine apple blueberry co-ferment that you serve well chilled, just as you would an excellent rose.
There are roughly a bazillion roses on the market – from everywhere. I challenge you to put any next to this remarkable achievement. Most roses are more marketing concoctions with a touch of interesting wine under a well-penned press release and an adorable label.
There is nothing quite like a co-ferment of the classic Northern Spy, which is the original foraged apple of early American cider. Speaking of real early pre-America, the blueberries are from the Passamaquoddy Wild Blueberry Company. This is agriculture from several millennia ago. The modern part is the R.A.S. team thinking and putting it together. There are roses and there is this rose.
STILL BLUE
With only 45 case total production, Still Blue comes in 750ml. bottles and is 11% alcohol. Limited availability. 100% wild Maine blueberries.
This was an homage to Bob Bartlett, founder and creator extraordinaire of the idea that Maine wild blueberries could be a stand-alone achievement in both growing and winemaking. A whopping two and a half pounds of wild Maine blueberries per bottle. A year of barrel aging adds weight and texture to this medium bodied, reasonably low in alcohol table wine.
We served Still Blue with lamb chops on the grill. Blueberry wine with lamb chops? It was an ideal combination in part due to oak barrel aging.
Joe: A wine that is vibrant and precise.
I chuckled while having it with dinner; that if you put a Bordeaux label – from say a Saint Emilion Grand Cru Chateau beside it – you would be totally fooled and completely dismayed, but also thrilled at what wound up in your glass.
A7 AMERICANO
A 750 ml. bottle at 12% alcohol. This is the R.A.S. take on the classic European after dinner liqueur digestif called Amaro. It is bittersweet and usually runs between 16% to 40% alcohol. Of course, this is a Maine wild blueberry wine infused with brandy and natural herbs and spices that makes it “neither bone dry nor noticeably sweet.”
We had it as a dessert wine with cheesecake. Of course, blueberry is the best combination. A 7 AMERICANO is versatile: rocks, negronis, Manhattans, you name it. A lighter, delicious version of the classic Amaro.
THOUGHTS
In this world that I affectionately term the Era of Desperation Marketing, R.A.S. stands out as the real deal. They are serious wines of place made by committed and thoughtful people.
LAYNE’S WALL OF SHAME
BONTERRA
Their motto is, “a love letter to the planet and to your taste buds.” They were previously a beacon of sustainable winemaking in California, becoming America’s number one organic winery producing both Chardonnay and Cabernet.
Their recent dive down the rabbit hole is the creation of Bonterra Ranch Wine which includes Chillable Cherry Wild Raspberry, Strawberry Hibiscus, and Pineapple Key Lime, that are “flexible flavor driven occasions.” I guess that I need to sit down and think up some “flexible flavor driven occasions.” They are what “beverage fans are missing from the category.” Or to state it more bluntly, they have all this wine sitting there, so let’s just go ahead and P.R. it up in hopes that we can sell it all.
GIESEN NEW ZEALAND SAUVIGNON BLANC
The # 1 no alcohol wine. Branching out, they are introducing Giesen no alcohol spritzers, “designed to elevate the mindful drinking experience and unlock new occasions for modern moderation.” But does it include a yoga mat?
LAYNE’S WINE GIGS
Individually tailored gigs for small or large groups. Pick the place and the theme and I will provide the fun. E-mail me at lvwitherell@gmail.com.
