When Wine Wednesday Collides With Hurricane Ian

What Happens when Wine Wednesday collides with Hurricane Ian? You pull some corks, take a deep breath (lots of them),  and pray for the best. That's just the beginning when you work at a radio station. You don't get to evacuate when a near category five hurricane comes a callin'. You pack an overnight bag and report for duty.

My bag contained more than a toothbrush, pillow, blanket and fresh pair of knickers.  It also contained  wine and cheese, but of course. My co-workers laughed but at the same time were delighted. I brought enough to share. The only sustenance  in our break room was peanut butter, jelly, white bread, and a few bags and boxes of salty snacks. If I was spending the night, I wanted to continue a common nightly routine.

A couple of weeks prior to the storm, I was sent a selection of Hidden Sea wine to review for a story. I thought this would be a good time to do just that. Perhaps the choice came from somewhere in my sub-conscious, hoping that by consuming a wine called Hidden Sea, our sea, or gulf, would also stay hidden from land. No such luck. Quite the opposite in fact .

Never the less, I thought I could also get opinions and reactions from a different group of people than my usual tasting panel.

But first, a little bit about these wines and the brand that has just been introduced into the United States. They are a winery with a mission. For every bottle of wine sold, ten plastic bottles are removed and recycled from the ocean. The goal is to remove one billion bottles by 2030. The winery runs on solar power, recycles wastewater, composts, and uses recycled products for packaging and shipping.

The land now home to The Hidden Seas vineyards is in South Australia. It was once covered by the sea. Gosh, so many analogies here. When the sea dried it up, it left behind these wonderful minerals and limestone deposits. They create a rich soil where vines now thrive. Hope for Southwest Florida. Ian's flood waters have resided and the clean up is under way. The "vines" of our area, the people and businesses, will once again thrive...better than ever.

A pretty, ballet pink, this is a dry rose that finishes fruity and  also sports some fresh acidity and minerality. The wine has some stone fruits on the palate and not quite ripe strawberry. It's also vegan.

This is my style chardonnay, more fresh than buttery. It has some tropical fruits such as pineapple flavors. As the wine warmed up, I got a little of that cotton candy sensation. It's an all day sipper.

The red blend is a combination of shiraz and cabernet sauvignon that creates a warm feeling. It has some spices, herbs, vanilla and red, slightly sweet fruit on the finish. Think raspberry, even plum.

I loved the packaging of this wine when it arrived. It tells the story of the brand and the land. I put together an unboxing video and tagged it with the in studio tasting set up. Check it out.