Wannabe Wino

I picked the 2007 Nelson Family Vineyards Viognier for the wine of the evening. It had a real cork closure, cost me $16.80 in a club shipment, and Matt tossed the bottle before I could write down the alcohol content.

I have to say, this was one of the best Viogniers I have ever had and a terrific value at that. I wish I had more, I would definitely serve this bottle at Thanksgiving this year.


On the nose I found peach, flowers, prickly pear, honey, and apricots. The nose made you want to dive into the glass and take a swim. The aromatics wafted out of the glass and across the room and you couldn't wait to drink the wine inside. An absolutely beautiful nose. In the mouth I got flavors of peach, pears, honey, a touch of spice, apricot, and orange zest.

The flavors showed as clean and crisp fruits, but the fruits were well developed and gave a full mouthfeel. A well done finish, clean and tasty. The wine just blew me away at this price point. I wanted more to drink. I can easily recommend this bottle.

I gather from the wine label that Petanque is a game of sorts, perhaps slightly bocce like. The wine was a 2007 Michel Schlumberger Viognier. It came in my last club shipment, and since Michel Schlumberger keeps their wine club shipment to $50 no matter what wine is in there, I have no idea what this bottle would retail for. Otherwise, it had a real cork closure and clocked in at 13.4% alcohol by volume.

I've never had a Viognier from Michel Schlumberger before, but boy have I been missing out because this one was a fabulous example of all that can be right about this grape.

On the nose I found pear, honey, peach, honeysuckle, flowers, and lemon. The nose was delightful, very aromatic, making my think of walking by the honeysuckle that used to grow at the top of the road I grew up on.

The mouth was like biting into a fresh, sweet, juicy, just ready to eat pear. Have you had the pears from Harry and David? The flavors were reminiscent of those pears, which to me are the best pears I've ever eaten. I also found some melon, honey, and citrus.

The wine was crisp, but had a nice rounded finish. I don't think this juice saw any oak, which really let the flavors of the grape shine through. I could see how this would be a great wine to sip while playing an outdoor summer game, even if I don't know what that game is!

The wine was a 2006 Quivira "Hommage A Ampuis" Syrah. The wine hails from the Dry Creek Valley (please go see Dr. Deb's excellent rant on the value of multiple varietals from the DCV), clocked in at 14.4% alcohol by volume, and cost me $36 minus a club discount in my club shipment. The notable part about the winemaking technique of this bottle is that the Syrah juice was fermented on Viognier skins (this also makes me wonder if Quivira has a Viognier they've been holding out on!).

And the oddest part was the it smelled like Viognier. If I were doing a blind tasting and hasn't yet actually tasted this wine, I would have said "Viognier!" and been very confident in that proclamation (except for maybe the slightest hint of dark berries, that would have thrown me for a minutes, but I still would have said "Viognier"). The nose was floral, with pears, violets, honeysuckle, and just a suggestion of dark berries. My notes helpfully say "How very odd."

The color of the wine was dark purple, like any other Syrah. So I was expecting it to be big and chewy like a Syrah despite its time spent playing with Viognier skins. Instead, this was a much lighter and delicate red wine on the front of the palate. It showed blackberries, blueberries, spice, cinnamon, and black cherry.

My first glass was tannic on the back of the palate. The wine needed air or time or both to loosen up. I have a second bottle of this in the basement and I will hold it for another year or so to see if the time in the bottle will help the wine integrate a bit more. This is the first Syrah I've had that involves Viognier, though I've seen/read about some that contain upwards of 5% Viognier juice. I think I'd like to get my hands on one of those and see how it compares to this one that simply fermented on the Viognier skins.

That's right folks, it's that time of the month again, WBW! This month, our gracious host is the wonderful Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20. She has set us to the task of picking a wine made from any White Rhone Varietal from anywhere in the world. This left the field wide open for wine from almost anywhere since Rhone varietals are being planted in lots of different places, and it gave a choice of many different grape varieties, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Rousanne...

With the task in mind, I went straight to my basement, where many CA Viogniers live. If I had not been traveling for work all last week, I would have been a little more ambitious and tried to compare one of the CA examples to one from the actual Rhone, but alas, it was not to be. Instead, in keeping with the regular theme of Dr. Deb's blog, I decided to shoot for a wine that under $20!

I chose the 2006 Hannah Nicole Viognier. I purchased this wine from WineQ, it cost me $15.99 (free shipping!), and clocked in at a hefty 15% alcohol by volume. I was a bit thrown off by this high of an alcohol level in a white wine, but in general I don't have problem with high alcohol in wine so long as the wine remains balanced, as this one did.

On first sniff, I had to laugh. We had a Syrah that had been fermented on Viognier grape skins (complicated, huh?) the other night, and the Hannah Nicole smelled exactly like the Syrah. My nose was all confused having a white wine that smelled exactly like the red we had consumed the night before!

After my initial confusion passed, I found the wine to be very floral. It showed great strong aromas of honeysuckle, pears, and peaches, topped off with a creamy vanilla note. In the mouth the wine was crisp, which I didn't really expect since it had been aged in new and old oak. The flavors I found were grapefruit, peach, pears, and some other citrus.

The wine was tingly and tart on the front of the palate, while the oak seemed to have given it a creamy feel mid-palate. Overall, I thought this wine was very refreshing, which is not a characteristic I usually associate with an oaked white wine, but I was pleasantly surprised. This was definitely a good value for the $15.99 price I paid for it.

Now, I know Dr. Debs was trying to get us to see the wonderful qualities of White Rhone Varietals for the summer, but I'm already a convert! One of my favorite pairings last years was a Roussanne with fresh crab legs. Though I will highly recommend that you follow her lead and toss a few White Rhone grapes into your drinking line up for the summer!

Many thanks to Dr. Debs for hosting this month, and as usual, I will let you know when the round-up is posted and what next month's theme is!

The wine for the evening was a 2006 De La Montanya Viognier. It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.1% alcohol by volume, and cost $20.80 in a club shipment. I love the De La Montanya wines and am much looking forward to my next shipment, which I think should be arriving soon as I haven't gotten anything from them since January.

I was struck immediately upon sticking my nose in this glass by the aroma of melted orange creamsicles. I haven't had an orange creamsicle in probably a good 20 years, but that was what dominated the nose for me. Otherwise, I found, oak, honey, cream, pear, apple, and peach on the nose of the wine. It was very aromatic. In the mouth I found pear, peach, oak, and cream. The wine was more tart on the front of the palate, but gave way to a creamy texture and then the heavier slightly oily characteristic I expect from Viognier towards the back of the palate.

We drank this on its own last Friday after work, and it made a great sipping wine to start the evening.

The wines from Twisted Oak have a sneaky habit of filling up my Q over at WineQ, and my last few WineQ shipments have been heavily Twisted! The bottle I am currently referring to is a 2005 Twisted Oak Viognier. I purchased it from WineQ in my last club shipment for $21.99 (free shipping), it had a real cork closure and clocked in at 14.1% alcohol by volume.

I served this with turkey soup, homemade by me! We tend to keep our house a little chilly in the winter, so perhaps you can see the steam rising from the soup...it's not because the soup is all the hot, it's just that cold in our house! The wine was an okay match for the soup, but I think it made a better after dinner wine, though I bet it would be great as an appetizer wine, or just sipping on its own.

On the nose I found aromas of pear, honey, apricot, and, oddly enough, caramel. I also noted something a bit spicy, but I couldn't quite place it. In the mouth, flavors of citrus, especially white grapefruit and lemon dominated, with notes of apricot and caramel/toffee/some kind of sweet candy.

The wine was sweet at the front of the palate but had great acidity and a bit of spice later on to keep the sweetness in check. This was a bigger white, and a touch creamy overall. I'm not sure if the picture does it justice, but the wine was really golden in color. Great wine, definitely something I'd get again.

It has been quite a while since we drank a bottle of the 2005 Preston Viognier. I have a few bottles of it hanging out, and my last review of this wine didn't do it justice as it was the 3rd or 4th wine of the evening on Thanksgiving last year and we were battling it out at Trivial Pursuit while drinking it. You can check out my paltry review here.

This time we drank the wine just sitting around one hot evening (a theme around here this summer, given the temperatures!). This is my third summer spent in the DC area and my 4th in Virginia. I am still not used to the heat!

The wine had a real cork closure, clocked in at 13.7% alcohol by volume and was made of grapes from Dry Creek Valley.

On the nose I found peach, honeysuckle, spice, and a bit of a topical note. In the mouth the wine was light and crisp. The flavors were peach, honey, and a bit of spice. The wine had silky feel in back of palate, I really enjoyed it. Overall an excellent wine and another great offering from Preston.

We made a brief return to Preston on our last Sonoma trip to pick up some olive oil and were disappointed to find that Preston was entirely sold out of all their white wines and hardly had any reds left either. I hope that they have released some new vintages by now! Preston was a cool place to visit, I think the most intriguing part, besides the wine of course, were the cats in the yard by the tasting room. There are just a ton of cats that live there!

My spreadsheet of wines was missing an entry in the price column for the wine I picked as our after dinner bottle. What can I say, the spreadsheet isn't perfect (sorry Huevos Con Vino, I know how much you love spreadsheets) especially when I found some of our receipts had gotten tossed as we worked our way down the west coast this summer. So I was a little afraid I might be choosing a pricey bottle, but I was wrong!

Anyway, the second bottle we drank last night was Nelson Family Vineyards 2005 Viognier. At only $16.80, this was quite a value. It was 14.8% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure. Sorry, no picture, I forgot to take one!

The nose on this bottle was incredibly aromatic and I could smell it easily without even bringing my nose into my glass. Many flowers jumping out with a touch of honey, it made for a pleasant aroma. It actually reminded me of when honeysuckle was in bloom in my yard as a kid.

In the mouth, there were spiced peaches and a bit of honey, following through on the nose, but surprising me with the peaches and the spice! Overall, I thought the structure and acidity were very well done, holding in what could have been very sweet flavors, but turned out to be an enjoyable, balanced and surprising mouthful of flavors.

This is our only bottle of this one and unfortunately, it appears to be sold out. Oh well, there's always next year's release, which I'm sure we'll get in a club shipment. Great value, keep an eye out for next year's.

We visited my FIL's family over the Christmas holiday out in Oklahoma City. Much fun and good food was had by all. We've made it home, full of Christmas cheer, but spent for this year. Too bad New Year's is this weekend, I could use a weekend off!

Several bottles of wine were consumed over the course of the weekend, including a 2005 McManis Family Vineyards Viognier. The botle is from California, 13.5% alcohol by volume, has a real cork closure and can be found here for just $9.98. At the price, this is a great wine. It would be perfect for an everyday bottle and worked really well as something to drink as we were all waiting to go the Hornets-Spurs game on Saturday!

I got peach and a bit of melon on the nose. The wine was very floral with touches of honey in the mouth. Smooth, with just a little citrus on the finish. This was an easy and fun wine to drink.

I believe that is the question that many a wine lover (or blogger) has been asking him or herself over the past few weeks. This was the plate of food that was served to everyone at my house. Sweet potatoes with marshmellows, candied carrots, mashed potatoes with cheese, turkey, etc. Is there really a perfect wine to serve with this disharmonious collection of food that somehow all tastes good together?

I think the answer I have arrived at is that no, there is no perfect wine to serve. But that's okay. Since nothing will go fantastically well, why not just serve what you like and add it into the mix of all the other random foods put together on a plate?

With that in mind, 4 bottles fell at our house on Thanksgiving. I was little off in my predictions. I thought we would drink 2 white, a red and a dessert. It ended up being 2 white, a dessert and a Champagne. As noted before, we let our guests choose off our pre-prepared list. My husband's brother and his wife chose the first bottle, a 2005 Ferrari-Carano Sauvignon Blanc. My brother in law said it was because it had Ferrari in the name. Everyone seemed to like it, though I think most were more concerned with tasting all the food at the table than with the wine! It's a slightly sweet sauvignon blanc with a good bit of citrus rounding out the flavor. I remember really enjoying this the day we tasted it and we do have another bottle hanging around for later. Cork closure, $15.

Next we moved on to a dessert wine, which was the choice my husband's Aunt and Uncle. Being slightly wary of the VA dessert wines on the list, they chose a 2005 Bella Late Harvest Zinfandel. This was also a cork closure and cost $20.50. At 15% residual sugar, I expected this to be a very sweet wine, but it really reminded of a very young port. I thought it had a great finish, a lot of blackberry flavor and I probably should have served it with an assortment of chocolate, but, chocolate would not seem the dessert of choice for Thanksgiving.

Up third for the evening was a bottle of Preston Vineyards 2005 Dry Creek Valley Viognier. Cork closure, $22 after a case discount. If you ever have a chance, try Preston's olive oils. They are superb and I only wish we had taken home a few bottles. This was a good choice for a wine to drink as we did, sitting around playing Trivial Pursuit. It was light and easy to drink, but surprisingly full in the mouth and very smooth going down. It had a bit of spice that I can't place and maybe a hint of tropical fruit. This was my choice as I realized we were hunkering for a long battle of the wits.

Finally, to finish the evening, we opened the bottle of champagne that our Aunt and Uncle were so kind to bring. It was a G.H. Mumm & Cie. Cordon Rouge Brut. I gather it runs around $37 for the bottle and sadly the cork was thrown away before I could see what year it was. I thought this was a very tasty bottle and a great way to finish our evening. I tasted a lot of apple, and thought it was slightly sweet for a brut champagne. A good finish, with just a bit of yeasty undertone. I'd definetly get this bottle again.