Rock Wall T-Rocks ~ Raising our kids on dinosaurs was a blast. Back then, no one could pronounce any of them; so it made sense that we not only challenged our kids, we were really challenging ourselves as well, learning with our children. Let’s just say, dinosaurs were best left to the scientific nerds at that time. Then we got involved and mainstreamed them.

My first born’s name is Katie Sunshine. (Yeah, we were part of that era.) She was born in Lewiston, Maine, only a three hour drive from Boston. At the time, I didn’t know my (and her) great grandfather (10 generations removed from me) was the Reverend William Blackstone, the founder of Boston. Had I known, I would have marched her to the top of Beacon Hill and shown her the plaque with his name on it. Instead, we spent our time on the Harvard quad, at the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Boston Children’s Museum. I also didn’t know that we have Harvard legacy, but I was still very much drawn to the campus with a  sense of belonging. (Nothing like a great dose of genealogy to bring everything to light.)

So, one day, as Katie and I were leaving the Children’s Museum, at the tender age of two, she articulated, “Tyrannosaurus Rex is my favorite dinosaur!” I thought to myself, “That’s actually not remarkable coming from her; but I’m going to remember this, because I think some day I’ll see it as remarkable.”

Meanwhile, while I’m educating my crew, Kent and Kathy Rosenblum were also starting their journey. Their joie de vive was/is Shauna Rosenblum, now Kent’s winemaker for Rock Wall Wine Company. Yes, Kent still is making wine, but so is Shauna. As Jose and I were getting ready to set up for last year’s Dark & Delicious event at Rock Wall, with all of the enthusiasm of A.A. Milne’s Tigger, Shauna Rosenblum came bouncing over to me with a bottle of her wine… right off the bottling line. It was her “new baby,” called T-Rocks, a 2010 California Red wine. As with anything happening under Kent’s watch, it’s innovative, gutsy, and delicious. I just opened the bottle, it’s taken me this long to settle in, and I realized this wine is as dangerous as any T-Rex could be. I could have gone through the entire bottle in one sitting, because it was that easy and delicious.

Shauna Rosenblum’s mythology for Rock Wall T-Rocks: “Much like Tyrannosaurus Rex once ruled the lands of North America [darn, why didn’t I write down the back copy, before we opened the wine and the bottle’s glass is now hard to read with it being drained?],  delicious, gigantic wines, rule our cellar. Chosen from some of the biggest and baddest wines we make, this is a monster-sized blend of 12  varieties chosen from some of our favorite vineyards.

Yeah, it’s that bad, and I just know there’s some Petite Sirah in there…

It makes perfect sense that Shauna would come up with the name for this one, and more sense that my own kid would love it, too. But, sorry, Katie.  I didn’t save any for you. Let’s revisit it when we head to Alameda to set up next year’s Dark & Delicious, for February 21, 2014.

This T-Rocks does definitely Rock! Good job, girl friend!