The Chronic Cellars Pink Pedals 2018 is the last of our Halloween wines 2020 series. we feature a red blend, a Chardonnay, and now a Rosé. The Pink Pedals is sourced from contracted vineyards in the Paso Robles AVA and is a blend of 88% Grenache and 12% Syrah.
The Chronic Cellars Pink Pedals 2018 label features a female skeleton bike rider on a pink bike with a skeleton dog in the front basket. Not spooky, scary it is actually pretty happy for a label featuring human bones. But, overall the label will fit in very well with the whole Halloween aesthetic.
Chronic Cellars was started in 2008 by Jake and Josh Beckett who were part of the family behind Peachy Canyon wines. The brand became so popular they could not keep up with demand. As often happens with wine brands that go viral the founders have a hard time expanding the company.
The problem seems to be that when a brand is hot and selling fast there are companies that want to buy for large sums of money. The original winery has to choose between borrowing money and going into debt to grow the brand or sell for some serious cash.
There is a whole slew of popular wine brands that are owned by someone other than the originators. The Beckett brothers had roles at Chronic Cellars for several years and have recently returned to Peachy Canyon wines to run the family business.
The Pink Pedals Rosé is a wine featuring Rhone Valley (southern France) grapes, for 2018 Grenache and Syrah, the 2019 vintage is 100% Grenache. It is fermented and aged in stainless steel vats.
To oversimplify things, Rose’ is Red wine made in White wine style. Red wine has a great deal of grape skin contact with the pressed wine juice. That is the reason for the dark red color along with other consequences.
White wines much less grape skin contact and Rose’ wine only has enough skin contact to get that pink color. Grape skin contains tannins and since the skins do not play a major role in White and Rose’ wine, the tannins are greatly reduced. The alcohol content is 13.3%.
Chronic Cellars Pink Pedals 2018 Tasting Notes
The color is an apricot pink with a hint of orange. The nose is subtle, clean, and crisp, there is strawberries in cream, black cherry, faint candy spice, and melon.
The Chronic Cellars has a firm mouthfeel and sleek flavors, this is a dry wine, it is not light and fluffy like some value-priced Rose’. It tastes of Bosc pear, dried pineapple bits, green apple (core and all). The mid-palate brings a little cream, peach, and lemon.
The acidity is the way I like it, enough to let the flavors unfold and get him reaching for another sip, but not enough to bite.
The Summary
- The Chronic Cellars Pink Pedals 2018 proves my theory that you can reliably by wine by the label.
- When looking for a wine to feature for Halloween I figured out that I write-up so many skull and skeleton label wines that I did not leave too many for Halloween.
- If you are looking for a bold and juicy, but adult wine look for skeleton labels, it works.
- The Pink Pedals charms grow on you with every sip.
- This tasty Paso Robles Rose’ will look good at your Halloween party.
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