Crosswords, Cruciverbalists, and Clueless Red!

 

Crossword Puzzle solvers (“Cruciverbalists”) are a peculiar breed, and I must confess that I am one. Obsessed, addicted, fanatical, whatever you want to call it, we hide away in our burrows with the New York or L.A. Times, agonizing over obscure clues and words, our spouses threatening imminent divorce proceedings.

 

We even have our annual celebration, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, now held in Brooklyn every February, founded thirty years ago and still run by Will Shortz, who just happens to be the Crossword Puzzle Editor of the New York Times. (You may have seen him in the movie “Wordplay” that came out a few years back.)

Sometimes your dedicated Puzzle Solver decides to transition to Puzzle Construction, perhaps even hoping to get published in one of the newspapers (the N.Y. Times being the pinnacle of success). I’ve tried my hand at this, and it’s incredibly difficult, even using crossword construction software. Constructors must abide by strict rules governing the design of the grid (usually15x15), the symmetry of its black squares, the number and minimum length of the words, and so on.

What does all this have to do with wine and with Claiborne & Churchill, you ask?

Well, glad you asked!

Two weeks ago we released a new wine, a blend of Rhone varietals that came out of a Wine Club Blending Seminar we held last summer. A new label was designed containing a crossword puzzle which, when solved correctly, would reveal information about the wine in the bottle. For lack of space on the label, the puzzle is without clues, so I christened the wine “." Moreover, solvers must go to our website (or email me, clay@claibornechurchill.com) to find the clues, and until they do they, too, remain “clueless!”

 

By the way, I sent a bottle to Will Shortz, and he liked it!

With the release of Clueless Red we announced a competition to solve the puzzle; the first ten correct entries would receive a prize. (As of this writing I have received eight ) We’ve also decided to continue our Clueless-ness , and we’ll soon be blending and bottling a “Clueless White.” If you are interested in attending this seminar please visit our events page for more information.

For readers of this Blog who want to try to solve the puzzle on our Clueless Red, we offer the clues below. Be forewarned that a number of the clues and words are quite obscure, so prepare to do some serious googling!