What makes a wine beautiful?
To The Black Olive all of this is important as we strive to build the best wine list the Mid-Atlantic has ever seen! Follow us as we reach for that goal.
Lolonis Wine Dinner, Few Seats Still Available
Winemaker Spotlight: The Ladybugs of Lolonis
When the Lolonis family immigrated to California, they began to grow grapes and make wine using many of the old varietals from their homeland. When the Spiliadis family started a restaurant, they discovered Lolonis. What better way to compliment Greek food in America than a wine from America made by a Greek family? Lolonis wines are not only amazing but they are organic.
From crisp whites to lush and complex reds, Lolonis makes the most of their Sonoma Valley climate and soil, and they do it all organically – using lady bugs to eat all the would-be grape predators!
The reason that wines are so nuanced is that they can be effected by the microclimate where the grapes are grown, the soil that the vines are grown in, and (often ignored by wine writers) the bugs and animals that coexist with us humans and our grapevines. The introduction of ladybugs to the Lolonis grape growing was an exceptionally innovative way to avoid the chemical spray that most grapes grown for winemaking get saturated with.
Simply stated, wines NEED some bugs, and WE ALL need a cleaner Earth with less ugly chemicals running into every square inch of water that we can find. Finding the right way to balance the growth of grapes with the Earth has been a successful effort for Lolonis.
The Lolonis and Spiliadis families have become friends, and over time the Lolonis wines have become notoriously winning on the Black Olive wine list. From wines by the glass to the deep cellar rarities, this winery does not disappoint, and is exceptionally drinkable with our cuisine.
One of our favorite Lolonis wines is our by the glass Ladybug Red: Cuvee VII. A packed-up mouthful in every sip, this wine is from Old Vines and it tastes like it has secrets hidden inside of it. That’s because Ladybug Red is a mix of varietals in which the dominant Zinfandel (with its fire and pepper) is tempered up and down on the tannin scale, by Carignane, Cabernet, and Merlot. It is a good, strong, red wine, for those who like to sample the finest examples of good strong red wine.
