How About Some Steal Your Face Red Blend Wine to Drink With Your Cherry Garcia Ice Cream?

winesthatrock.com

A jammy (band) red to sip

If you happened to miss the Village Voice-sponsored wine tasting/Grateful Dead cover band event Wine Unplugged at this year's Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival, you can console yourself with the next best thing: a bottle of the just-released Grateful Dead "Steal Your Face Red Blend" wine.

Wines That Rock, a company that makes rock-music-inspired wines (no joke), has launched the fifth wine to join the brand's portfolio, which also includes Forty Licks Merlot, Woodstock Chardonnay, Synchronicity Red Blend, and the Dark Side of the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon.

Produced by Mendocino Wine Co., Steal Your Face Red Blend ($16.99) combines Syrah, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, and Grenache, and is 25 percent aged in French oak and 75 percent in redwood uprights for 20 months. Why so many varietals in one bottle? It's a "celebration of the freedom of expression," a nod to the "Grateful Dead's famous improvisational concerts that have brought joy to so many." Still somewhat of an odd choice, though, given that Steal Your Face is one of the most criticized Dead albums. And how does it taste? Its flavors are supposed to recall "black cherries, peppered back with a velvety vanilla and caramel finish." Too bad -- we were hoping it would taste like pot wine.

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