Since 1992, Cakebread Cellars has been making what has become a very popular light-bodied red wine blend named after the famous poem, Rubáiyát by Omar Khayyám.* For each vintage of Rubaiyat, winemaker Julianne Laks makes the kind of red wine blend ideally suited to accompany light picnic or barbecue fare. A wine inspired by those all-too-familiar lines of
Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough, A flask of wine, a book
of verse -- and thou Beside me singing in the wilderness - And wilderness is paradise ….
The Eleventh Quatrain of the Rubáiyat by Omar Khayyám*
But the modern day romantic in each of us does not have to sing in the wilderness, especially a paradisiacal one, to be able to properly enjoy Cakebread Cellars' 2001 Rubaiyat. It goes extremely well with grilled or spicy foods, or any dish that might otherwise overwhelm a lighter white or rosé wine.
Accordingly, the constant in Rubaiyat's blend over the years has been the food-friendly Pinot noir wine, with Syrah being blended to better bring forward the Pinot noir's vibrant raspberry and bright cherry-like flavors.
Aged over one year in new and year-old French oak barrels before being bottled, the 2001 Rubaiyat is produced in such limited quantities as to be only available at the winery. It is also enjoyable to serve Rubaiyat slightly chilled.
