We recently received a wonderful piece of fan mail regarding our white blend, Evolution. Below is our winemaker's explanation and description of the wine - we hope you enjoy it. Cheers!

"Dear Russ,

Hello, my name is Scott Creekmore and I work for Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Atlanta-Buckhead, GA and on Saturday June 19, 2010 I'll be giving a tasting on your Evolution #9 and was curious if you would be willing to help me out with some of your personal notes to entice my teammates with your wine. I personally have known about your product since 2004 or 2005 by another restaurant here in the greater Atlanta Area and would enjoy getting to share the delicious fun of your product. What I have found so far has been very limited and run of the mill, and I believe your juice deserves more than mediocracy.

What do you say, how about a little help from the master himself?"

From Russ Rosner, Winemaker at Sokol Blosser Winery:

"I was just going to blow off this email like the thousands of others I get from adoring fans of Evolution, but you got me with that "master" comment.

Actually, I'm always happy to respond to anyone who takes the time to write to me about our wines (especially if it's complimentary!). I'm always a bit amazed by the popularity of Evolution. Whenever I need a bit of an ego boost I read the customer reviews of Evolution on our website.

Evolution may be the hardest wine I have to make, because it's all about blending rather than terroir. For a wine like our Pinot Noir, the grapes do most of the work; when it comes time to put the final blend together I have forty or fifty different lots to work with but they're all Pinot Noir, so they're fundamentally similar. With Evolution I have to put together nine different varieties, all quite dissimilar. Trying to fit together the flavors and aromas of nine radically different varieties is like putting together a large and complicated puzzle. The blend must be well-knit and integrated yet the individual varietal characters should still be evident. I think of it as trying to mix nine different colors of paint and end up with a rainbow instead of a muddy brown. One reviewer called it "a parade of flavors across your palate". Wine writer Howard Goldberg, reviewing Evolution for the New York Times a few years ago, called it “a successful liquid jigsaw puzzle”. For me, that was the ultimate compliment.

The secret to Evolution is that when you taste it it starts off very slightly sweet but finishes dry. I don't know how it does that, but I know that when it does do that, the blend is right. The majority of the blend is made up of four varieties -- Semillon, White Riesling, Muller-Thurgau, and Pinot Gris -- but the flavors and aromas are predominantly driven by the Gewurztraminer and Muscat. Those two really provide the spice and perfume. The remaining three varieties -- Chardonnay, Sylvaner, and Pinot Blanc -- play minor supporting roles.

Another wonderful thing about Evolution is that while it's pleasant to drink all by itself, it's also one of the most food-friendly wines I've found. It was originally designed to go with foods that are usually hard to pair with wine: ginger, wasabi, mint. Anything with spice and/or heat: Asian, Indian, Southwestern. I've found it to be one of the very few wines that seems to work with salads that have vinegar-based dressings (death to most wines). I've had people write in to say they drink it with steak; not what I would expect to be the best match but if it works for them, great.

I think the real key to Evolution's success is that it is easy to drink and enjoy for novice wine drinkers but has enough complexity and nuance for experienced consumers. That's what I try to create every year. It is wine, and there will be vintage variation, but the goal is to have roughly the same flavor and aroma profile with each release, so that people can buy it knowing more-or-less what to expect.

If you ever get up to our area, please let us know. We'd love to show you around the winery and vineyards. Best of luck with the tasting.

Regards, Russ"