Meynieu 6

            This is a French grape with some new-country roots. It’s a cross between Semillon and Baco Blanc, the latter of which has as one of its parents the 19^th-century American grape Noah, a riparia-labrusca crossing.

            Slate Run Vineyards southeast of Columbus, Ohio, is the only place I’ve found selling a wine, called Premblanc Reserve, made entirely from this grape. A high-school pal helped me get a couple of bottles last year, and I was dismayed to see that it was the 2006 vintage. Sure enough, the first bottle we opened was quite brown. Yesterday I opened the other one, just to see if it could be used as cooking wine, and was surprised to discover that it was only slightly over the hill, and close enough to the summit to be enjoyable.

            The winery provides little information about this wine, other than to call it “white Bordeaux-styled” and (incorrectly) “a Sauvignon Blanc hybrid.” Other Slate Run wines see some oak, and this one evidently did as well. It was soft, and the flavors seemed rounded and mellowed with age, indeed rather Bordeaux-like with no hint of foxiness.

            We haven’t had this with a meal, but it should be fine with comfortable American-style preparations of white meats.