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It's dreadful to get
stuck in a rut, even if the rut is lined with silk and precious
gems. You crave variety if you've got any curiosity about
you. That goes for everything, from art to wine. Years ago,
folks on the first Friendship Force exchange to former Soviet
Georgia got fed caviar for breakfast every morning, or so
I heard. By the time half the week was over, they were so
sick of caviar, they were craving corn flakes.
Man cannot live on caviar alone.
So it is with wine. You may be a Chardonnay maniac or perhaps
a Riesling champion. Fine But what else is there out there,
as a young man once asked me at a tasting, almost plaintively.
He was tired of Chardonnay (a condition I can totally understand).
Fortunately, from literally A to Z, from Airen (grown for
brandy in Spain) to Zilavka (grown in Bosnia Hercegovina),
the world is full of alternatives. While many are vinified
and aged in barrel, many more are handled in stainless steel,
making wines that are fresh, fruit filled, and clean finished.
Oak must be handled gingerly, to avoid killing the fruit flavors
with too much vanilla, coconut and spice, flavors that don't
occur naturally in wine. Older (oak that has seen 2-4 years
of use), neutral oak is best, as it only acts as a medium
for air exchange and affects the flavor of the wine less than
new oak, especially new American oak with its wider grain
and more aggressive character.
Some of these may be familiar--such as the Chenin Blanc and
Semillon--but I include them because I find they tend to get
"no respect," as Rodney Dangerfield used to complain.
And that's a shame, because both deserve attention. Serious
attention. Things are getting better for Chenin Blanc, as
South Africans especially are beginning to respect their traditional
grape and as the Route du Chenin in France recognize the best
of the lot.
Serve these chilled, but not turned into a popsickle, as that
simply kills all flavors. Something around 50-55 degrees would
be nice, and use tulip-shaped glasses for the purpose!
Jane Garvey
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Stellenbosch
Vineyards Kumkani Chenin Blanc 2005
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Score: 91 Points
Tasting Notes: Medium-bodied
dry white wine; pale straw. Aromas of white melon, wet hay,
pear and honey; mineral-enhanced white fruit flavors, with a
touch of the taste (not the sweetness) of honey in the finish.
Kumkani is a Xhosa (one of South Africa's 11 official languages)
word for "king," which explains the chess piece on
the label. Vinified in stailess steel, which keeps fruit freshness.
Grape: Chenin Blanc, an important grape from the Loire Valley,
especially Vouvray, and often known as "Steen" in
South Africa. Great value! Food Pairings:
Exotically flavored foods: curried chicken salad; Moroccan
tagines with fish or chicken; cous cous (but hold the harissa);
paella; Malaysian dishes (roti, lightly curried fish or chicken);
chicken or pork with mustard cream sauce; chicken pot pie;
South African curries (they're not wicked hot)
Price: $11
Wholesaler: Quality Wine & Spirits
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Bleasdale
Verdelho 2005
Langhorne Creek, Australia
Score: 90 Points
Tasting Notes: Medium-bodied
dry (very tiny..02 residual sugar) white wine; pale yellow.
Aromas of white melon, white stone fruit, citrus notes (lemon--even
a bit like a lemon drop), suggestion of crushed coriander. Flavors
focus on lemon, melon and fresh herb. Clean, brisk, long finish.
Very low ph (3.25) and good acidity (6.9) signal balance. Acidity
may have been adjusted, as it seems to burst at the end of the
palate. Very nice value.
Food Pairings: Oysters with
lemon; cold cooked shrimp with lemon Pommery mustard; shrimp-and-rd
pepper pate (Summer Sweet); chicken tenders or pork steaks
with creamy whole-grain mustard sauce; crawfish salad with
remoulade; garlic grilled shrimp; grilled scallops with honey
mustard sauce; lemon olive chicken; mild curries (Whole Foods'
curried chicken salad is awesome with this); crab cakes.
Price: $13
Wholesaler: Atlanta Wholesale Wine / NDC |
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Peter Lehmann
Semillon 2003
Barossa Valley, Australia
Score: 90 Points
Tasting Notes: Medium-bodied
dry white wine; medium greenish gold. Aromas of citrus and white
blossoms, with flavors that suggest citrus, a touch of the taste
(not the sweetness) of honey, and minerals. Crisp, clean, brisk,
zingy finish. Delicious now but will evolve with proper cellaring
at 55 degrees. Semillon may go into a "dumb phase"
at about five years, then emerge a few years later with all
motors running, exhibiting a bright neon-backlit yellow jello
color and a pronounced citrus/honey flavor. Amazing. Great value.
Food Pairings: At this point,
savor it as an aperitif wine with light appetizers, such as
Boursin-stuffed cocktail potatoes; oysters; tabbouleh or hummus
with pita bread; taramosalata; cocktail-sized quiches or onion
tarts; seafood mousse of all sorts. Also pasta with cream
and clams; pasta with hefty garlic; Caesar salad; chicken
salad wraps; chicken tenders with whole-grain mustard cream
sauce; fish 'n' chips with tartar sauce; scallops; shrimp
Remoulade
Price: $13
Wholesaler: Enoure Dustrubytung
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Domaine Weinbach
"Clos de Capucins"
Sylvaner Reserve 2004
Alsace, France
Score: 89 Points
Tasting Notes: Medium-bodied
dry white wine; medium greenish straw. Aromas of citrus peel,
attractive, intense citrus-kissed fruit flavors with good acidity.
Silky texture and a long, clean, brisk finish. A wine to enjoy,
not to fuss over or to stimulate intellectual wine-ese small
talk. Slurp. Grape: Sylvaner. Sylvaner, also the grape of Germany's
Franken wine, is best drunk young.
Food Pairings: Lots of dishes:
Grilled vegetables (including wine-challenging asparagus);
Alsace onion tarte; quiche; mild (not hot) curries; crab cakes
and solf-shell crab; chicken or pork in creamy whole-grain
mustard sauce; roast pork loin; cold Asian noodles and other
Asian seafood and chicken dishes if not too spicy hot; fried
catfish or other seafood with remoulade
Price: $17
Wholesaler: Empire Distributing |
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Sigalas
Santorini 2004
Santorini, Greece
Score: 90 Points
Tasting Notes: Medium-bodied
dry white wine; pale greenish straw. Fresh, clean citrus-kissed
scent; mineral-rich citrus flavors. Silky texture, good acidity,
and zingy fruit flavors, plus the minerality, make this a
very special wine experience. Great summer wine. Grape type:
Assytiko, a native Greek variety. Stainless steel, although
there also is a barrel-fermented edition (but personally I
prefer this one). Santorini is a Greek island whose volcanic
soil is the gift of an eruption more than a millennium and
a half BC. Vines are cultivated in low basket-shaped crowns.
Food Pairings: All sorts of
Greek appetizers and meze, from green olives to taramosalata
to stuffed grape leaves to hummus to grilled seafood to Greek
salad to feta cheese. Also a wide variety of non-Greek fare,
such as cold soba noodles with sesame; mild curries (curried
chicken salad or Indian biryani); Whole Foods' chicken with
lemon, onion, garlic and olives (awesome); grilled scallops
or shrimp with Remoulade
Price: $19
Wholesaler: Quality Wine & Spirits
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Terre Rouge
Roussanne 2002
Sierra Foothills, CA
Score: 87 Points
Tasting Notes: Full-bodied dry
white wine; medium gold. Fairly oak affected with aromas of
sweet vanillin from oak and flavors that reflect the barrel
fermentation and aging, applying custardy crème brûlée and vanilla
notes to the wine. Underneath the oak, you'll find spicy quince
fruit flavors. High alcohol (14.5%) and ph (3.75) so not much
sense of acidity, even though it's high at 6.5%. Integration
of fruit, oak, acidity fairly successful. Too much oak for my
tastes, but it might appeal to those who prefer this approach
to winemaking. Grape type: Roussanne, a white variety, grown
especially in the Rhone. Food Pairings:
Assertive flavors: Dishes with cumin and saffron (such as
risotto milanese or paella);
mild curries with chicken or other poultry; vegetable, dishes
with hefty cumin; arroz con pollo; veal or chicken with substantial
exotic spice. Steer clear of shellfish with this much oak.
Price: $25
Wholesaler: Quality Wine & Spirits
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