Meet Gewürztraminer - The Diva

When I think about Gewürztraminer (pronounced ge-VIRTS-trah-meener), I recall the early-bloomed exotic beauty that struts the halls in stiletto boots. She has legs for days and a rude attitude that makes her even more intriguing. Dudes offer her gum just so they can watch her pouty pink lips move when she chews. Those who hate her secretly study her swag so they can learn how to command the kind of attention she gets.

Literally translated as the spicy Traminer – Tramin is the place in northern Italy from which the grape hails, gewürz is the German word for spicy – this variety is unique indeed and is beloved by those who truly understand it. Think ginger spice, just think about that funk and sizzle that ginger gives you on the nose. You can expect a wine with a lot of body and that’s rather perfumy, often smelling of rose petals and lychee fruit. In the glass Gewürztraminer tends to have deeper color than some other white wines as a result of contact with its blushing skins during fermentation – the perfect tan. Sweeter versions give you more of the tropical fruit characters, but still the signature heady aroma. In general, Gewürztraminer smells sweet but tastes dry (all the sugar is fermented out).

Gewürztraminer’s homeland, if not its motherland, is Alsace, the almost German region in eastern France. Usually it comes 750ml size Alsace flute, the same tall slender bottle Riesling comes in. It is grown all over the world with happy digs in the Nelson region of New Zealand, Germany, Austria and various New York AVAs. It’s used in some well known blends from California and Oregon. No matter how many other grapes are in the blend, Gewürztraminer stands out as a striking presence.

Comfort foods that remind me of Gewürztraminer include Christmas rum raising cake, Easter hot cross buns and ginger snap cookies. Having said that, I just love dry Gewürztraminer with Thai curry noodles, or on a different vein, tuna or salmon sashimi – juicy acidity rolls itself happily around the rich oily fish on the palate.

Your homework for this week and weekend is to try 3 Gewürztraminers. Start with one from Alsace – luckily these are the French wines that are labeled by grape. Then see if you can find a local one, as well as one from New Zealand. Don’t be surprised if you’re left speechless after she first passes your lips. Do Tweet your notes to @wineLIFE_ #GewurzHW. Tell us which one was your favorite (please include the wine’s name, vintage and region), how much you paid for it and its best qualities. You can also post notes on the wineLIFE Facebook wall. Go get ‘em!

Meet Sauvignon Blanc - The Rebel

When I think about Sauvignon Blanc, I remember that guy who went against every imaginable grain. He didn’t play sports or join clubs because it was too normal – he was an individual. If everyone was wearing red that year, he wore blue or black. Instead of a letter jacket, he rocked a

tough leather and perhaps some chains. When all his friends were listening to pop and hip hop, he preferred grunge and painted his fingernails black. A true rebel. Not the boy next door.

When I put my nose into a great glass of Sauvignon Blanc, my reaction is usually “What the funk???” Because it gives you what you wouldn’t expect from a wine – freshly cut grass, green bell pepper, scallions, etc on the nose, and if it isn’t a lower end Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, or something similarly new world, you will be shocked and appalled by the austerity on the palate! And that’s the way he wants you to react when he enters a room. Just like he wasn’t interested in team sports or clubs in school, he’s not for corporate – he owns his own Harley Davidson shop so he can dress however the funk he wants and talk bikes all day. Sancerre, located at the inland end of the Loire Valley in France, is the official homeland of Sauvignon Blanc. It is also grown in Bordeaux, and when blended with Semillon and sometimes Muscadelle (not related to Muscat, Muscadet or Muscadine) it is Graves (pronounced Grahv) the official white wine of the region. Sancerre set the standard for grassy Sauvignon Blanc, that beloved “cat’s pee” swag that true Sauvignon fans look for in their glass. From these wines you can experience citrus flavors, particularly lemon or lemon zest and grapefruit, and they’re invariably bone dry.

On a different vein, Sauvignon Blanc proliferates in the Marlborough region of New Zealand’s South Island, brand new world. More audacity – of all the random places to take root! Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc can be grassy with that cat’s pee vibe as well, but on the palate they take on a distinct passion fruit flavor, with less austerity than their French contemporaries. They’re much more user friendly, in their own rebellious way.

In general, because of characteristically high acidity, Sauvignon Blanc is a great food wine. I like it with fried foods, anything salty or creamy like baked macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, fried clams, fried fish, French fries, eggs benedict – yes, why not have a glass of wine with breakfast, it’s a wonderful way to start a day! Also I love Sauvignon Blanc with dried sausage or cured meats, and semi-soft cheeses (avoid blues, the acidity in those cheeses will clash with the high acidity in the wine).

Your homework for this week and weekend is to drink six Sauvignon Blanc. You are excused from this assignment on Thursday, as September 1 is #CabernetDay, but then you must dive back into your devoirs! Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé (the other Loire Valley Sauvignon benchmark) are highly recommended. Quincy is a less expensive alternative to these, not quite like the authentic article but at least you will be drinking from

the same region at about half the price. Marlborough is also a must. These are ubiquitous and plentiful – shop in the US$13-$18 range, you can almost pick blind because they are so consistent! If you can get a Graves or another white Bordeaux called Entre-Deux-Mers, grab one for a unique experience. Then see what is produced near you. Sauvignon Blanc can pack up and move anywhere to thrive, so you’ll find wines from various US States, Austria, South Africa, Italy, Chile and various other locals in your store or on your fave wine website.

Then just for kicks, treat yourself to a Sauternes. This is the celebrated dessert wine of Bordeaux, the only place in the world famous for making sweet Sauvignon Blanc (blended also with Semillon and Muscadelle). You deserve dessert! Do Tweet your notes to @wineLIFE_ #SauvBlancHW. Tell us which one was your favorite (please include the wine’s name, vintage and region), how much you paid for it and its best qualities. You can also post notes on the wineLIFE Facebook wall. Bottoms up!

Meet Chardonnay - The Intellectual

When I think about Chardonnay, I’m reminded of the wallflower, the girl who preferred to fade into the background lest she be singled out and ridiculed for some made up reason. Nonetheless, if you need a tutor or a study partner, sitting at a table with her is your fastest way to an A.

The truth is, just like in the movies, she cleans up very nicely – with some nice clothes (Malolactic) and perhaps a little makeup (aging in oak), she can be rather attractive. But just as she is, in her everyday wardrobe with her hair pulled back and poorly chosen spectacle frames, she doesn’t really shine except in the classroom or boardroom.

That’s the thing about Chardonnay. While there is a goodly amount of unoaked Chardonnay on the wine market, much of it has little character and sort of reminds one of a less exciting version of some other varietal white wine. But after fermentation in oak with a dose of beloved lactic bacteria that turns the malic acid into something soft and buttery, and then aging in some more oak to give that round mouth feel and add a layer of flavor complexity, she can really be a bombshell! She lends herself well to these techniques, so to me, Chardonnay as a wine is a study in style, a winemaker’s opportunity to demonstrate artistic talent and intellectual vinification.

The benchmarks for Chardonnay come out of Burgundy’s Chablis and Côtes de Beaune sub regions in France and from the Napa and Russian River Valleys in California. The former homeland can offer a range of styles from the very crisp, mineral, linear wines to the curvaceous, rich and complex, all with precise balance and minimal fruit character. The latter is known for wines that are consistently described as “oaky-buttery”. They often weight in heavy in alcohol and are either beloved or detestable to a wine drinker – the wallflower that has come out of her shell and will never look back!

Think basic with Chardonnay: if you grew up on meat and potatoes, chicken for dinner most nights, Chinese take out or pizza once a week, then it’s an easy wine for you to wrap your head around. Unoaked Chardonnay and ones that have had just a light handed dose of oak lend themselves to almost anything that isn’t spicy or elaborately seasoned or sauced, including poultry, fish, beef and lamb. It’s a comfort wine for comfort food – I love it with baked macaroni and cheese or beans and rice.

Your homework for this week and weekend is to try 5 Chardonnays. Start with a Chablis (the real stuff from France, none of that Franzia 5L Bag-in-Box or Carlo Rossi please!). Shop also for a Napa Valley Chardonnay in the $15 range and an Unoaked Chardonnay from Australia or New Zealand (many specifically say Unoaked on the label). Since Chardonnay is made just about everywhere, have a local one. Chardonnay doesn’t need to be served too cold, so perhaps an hour in the fridge to just cool it down a little if your bottle spent an 30 minutes in a hot subway car or walking down the street in the heat with you. Do Tweet your notes to @wineLIFE_ #ChardonnayHW. Tell us which one was your favorite (please include the wine’s name, vintage and region), how much you paid for it and its best qualities. You can also post notes on the wineLIFE Facebook wall. Also feel free to post questions. We would love to talk wine with YOU more!!

Meet Riesling - The Cheerleader

When I think about Riesling, I’m reminded of a cheerleader. She’s amicable and pretty and lovable. People like having her around because she makes everyone happy. She’s a cutey with an easy smile and great posture. Usually she’s sweet and agreeable but in her serious, austere self, Riesling is the picture of balance and finesse.

As a member of the cheering squad and as the proprietor of her own bakery today, her bright, vivacious, congenial character gets her everywhere! She can light up a room all by herself. Even when dry, she’s racy and fun. But most know her sweet self, whether its just a spot of residual sugar that brings out all that tropical sunshine in her personality, or the nectary dream of a decadent dessert that makes your mouth go mmmmm!

When buying Riesling, you will definitely need a bit of guidance to determine how sweet your selection is. If the wine is sold in a slender 375ml bottle with straight sides and you spot any of the following words on the label: Ice Wine, Eiswein, Trockenbeerenauselese (Or any portion of this word), Auslese or Spätlese, you have a sweetie on your hands. The best of these should not be syrupy per se. They should be just short of unctuous with flavors of ripe tropical fruit and (this is key) enough acidity to help you clean some of that sugar up off your palate so you can enjoy another glass or a bite of pie.

The rest of the Rieslings are usually found in 750ml bottles that are tapered from bottom to top, and they can vary from very dry and minerally to medium sweet. In general, there is no simple way to know what you’re getting unless you know the style of the producer who made it. Although trocken is the German word for “dry” and halb-trocken means “half dry”, those terms are relative to each producer’s concepts of dry and sweet. Your best bet is to seek further guidance, either by reading a description of the wine if you’re shopping online or, if you are shopping in a physical store, read the back label and ask your retailer. Truth is if its riesling you want, and you get something that is sweeter or dryer than what you expected, you’re probably not going to be that disappointed - It’s Riesling, after all!

Germany is variety’s best known homeland – in fact, pretty much all of the German wine we have access to in the US is indeed Riesling. She is also a favorite for producers in the Alsace region of Eastern France (which is right by the German border and was once actually a part of Germany), as well as upstate New York’s Finger Lakes wine region and Canada’s Niagara Peninsula.

If you grew up in the tropics, like in the Caribbean, Hawai’i or South East Asia for example, and you were accustomed to eating pineapple, citrus fruits, lychee, mangoes and other tropical delights, you will LOVE Riesling. You will especially love Riesling with spicy foods. This wine acts as a wonderful counterpoint to curry, jerk and other peppery dishes – she can make the palate punishment of hot spices a much more enjoyable experience. She’s also a perfect partner for pork - think pernil, chops, tenderloin or hot sausage.

Your homework for this week and weekend is to try 5 Rieslings. You should definitely have a German Riesling, and since Riesling is made just about everywhere, have a local one too - New Yorkers and Canadians, you are in so much luck!. Also make sure you find a dry one to try, don’t just drink sweet all week. They’re lovely with a nice chill on them in general, so if you’re in the northern hemisphere, you will enjoy this summer wine research immensely. Do Tweet your notes to @wineLIFE_ #RieslingHW. Tell us which one was your favorite (please include the wine’s name, vintage and region), how much you paid for it and its best qualities. You can also post notes on the wineLIFE Facebook wall. We would love to keep up with what you are drinking!!

Wine for a New World

The terms Old World and New World are used quite often in wine-speak. They imply not only a physical location where the grapes are grown and the wine is produced, but they also imply the idea of a style of wine.

The Old World in wine is pretty much Europe and includes places where wine has been made for multiple centuries and is a part of the tradition and lifestyle. The New World is everywhere else, where wine industry is a phenomenon of the last 150-200 years or so, and the culture-at-large still leans toward beer and/or distilled spirits.

As far as style is concerned (you know how I like to think of wine the way I think of people) Old World Wines are quite like that beautiful woman in the long dress who barely looks in your direction and makes you work hard to get her attention. They don’t show all their cards on the first sip, they often age beautifully and improve over the years, and even those entry level wines that aren’t built for aging are still quite coy. New World Wines in general are more gregarious. You might find they remind you of an episode of Girls Gone Wild Spring Break - they are cute and perky and leave very little to the imagination.

The Old World has that kind of opinion about the New World wine consumer, particularly the rapidly growing number of wine drinkers in the United States to whom every wine producer and his grandmother wants to sell some vino. Their very wide sweeping assumption is that we are Coca-Cola Nation - we grew up with lots of sugar, everything we eat slaps you with in-your-face flavor as soon as it hits your palate. They think that’s how we like it. In some cases they even produce a separate wine for export to the US, thinking they have done a good job pleasing our palates.

I submit that there are far too many people drinking wine in America for such a sweeping generalization to be true. I don’t think wine for a new world should all be fruit forward, crowd pleasing grown-up juice. In fact, I offer another curve ball: the same person can be a different kind of wine drinker depending on the scenario - with or without food, alone or with friends or with a love interest, in cold or warm weather - these could all mean different wine needs!

What consumers in the New World DO need in general though is to feel more confident about buying wine. When the Old World of wine is producing something to send out to the damn Yankees, they should think a lot more about packaging that communicates well with the consumer than changing the wine inside to fit some stereotypical new world style. Because satisfaction in wine should come from finding and drinking wines you love, based on what they were meant to be from the start of their lives that vintage, not based on how well they were doctored up to please the lowest common denominator. In that, we will all find satisfaction.

Sending it Back: When you are NOT in the Right

I’ll never forget it: The elderly lady walked into the store I was working at 6 years ago with a look of complete horror on her face. “There is glass in my wine!” she exclaimed, with an accent that was distinctly Eastern European. “Glass! I may have cut my tongue!” And there I was, greenhorn with a few years of wine study under my belt, foolishly attempting to explain to her that it was not at all glass. I even had the nerve to smile about it - the wine nerd in me couldn’t wait to wrest the bottle from her possession so I could examine the phenomenon.

Tartrate crystals, also known as wine diamonds, but as far as she was concerned, they were NOT her friend! I did catch myself lest she try to swing the bottle or her little old lady handbag at me in defiance. I apologized and promptly refunded her money, but in truth, there was nothing wrong with the wine she was returning. Tartrate crystals will precipitate from time to time in white and red wines alike when the wine is not “cold stabilized” (chilled down to near freezing so crystals will form BEFORE bottling) at the winery. In the case of wines that were made by low intervention winemakers, you may find diamonds, darling!

Another chewy thing you might find is sediment. Oh boy, this could get technical (donning wine geek pocket protector and glasses with tape in nose bridge) The tannins - you know the stuff that we all seek for antioxidant properties, those molecules that make our tongue feel a bit dried out after a sip of red wine? Well, they start out life as monomers, but over time, they form chains - or polymers - by linking together into groups. Then they become little chunks. Once again, very natural. No reason whatsoever to send a bottle back! There are gadgets on the market created to help you remove the sediment from an older wine (polymers form over the passage of a few years normally), or you can simply decant it. The classic tradition of decanting is not only to give a wine breathing room, but also to very slowly pour the wine out, leaving any sediment behind, so none ends up in your glass. Although it is not a real “fault”, I’ll admit that finding a chunk of polymerized tannin in your mouth isn’t a pleasant sensation.

Now if the cork should be dried out and crumble a bit into your wine, and you find a bit or two of it floating in your wine glass, just get over it - fish it out, and drink your wine! That is definitely NOT a fault. If the wine still looks and tastes fine, it may just be that the bottle was stored standing up for most of its life, so the cork remained dry because no wine came in contact with it to moisten it up. See last week’s article to see what kind of a fault a cork can be the culprit of.

In these circumstances, it really isn’t right to expect a retailer or restaurant to take your return of an opened bottle of wine. Nonetheless, a good one will explain if you want to hear, empathize if you don’t, and do what it takes to make you a happy customer.

Sending it Back - When you are right to do so!

**I must preface this by saying that although I have renamed this blog "wineLIFE Almost Weekly" and have struggled to at least post monthly in these last few turns, I am back with lots of thoughts and new knowledge to share, and I will be posting with a vengeance!**

And now: Sending it Back!

So far since we’ve been open, we have had only one customer come back to us and say that they thought that something wasn’t quite right with the wine they purchased from our store. We asked them for the bottle back, but they had done away with the wine already.
They weren’t pressed about getting a refund, but they did feel compelled to inform us.

The more unsettling thing was that she was the only person who has come forward. I’ve had just a few people say they were not wild about one wine or another, but the overwhelming response has been positive to the wines we’ve been working with. Not that we want anyone to be unhappy. Nonetheless, we’ve theorized about this, and come up with a list of possibilities that also serves as a list of good reasons why someone should feel very free to send a wine back.

SEND IT BACK! There are indeed some cases in which you are right to either bring an opened but unconsumed wine back to your retailer for a refund, or send an ordered bottle of whatever back to the sommelier after you’ve been poured a taste and determined it is NOT IN SALEABLE CONDITION. There are two important things to remember in this formula:

A. If you are asking your retailer to refund or replace a bottle - BRING THE BOTTLE BACK! Think about it: if you wanted to return a garment to a clothing store because of a defect, you would need to bring it back and show the defect to the staff, correct? Same goes for wine. We would pour a bit into a glass and verify your claim. Just as in the retail store, we wine shop owners can return defective merchandise to our distributors and recover our money.
B. Unlike the clothing store return, it really isn’t OK to return a wine just because you “don’t like it”. Do you not like it because it is in bad condition, or because it simply is not your bag? If its the latter, then neither the retailer or restauranteur would feel compelled to take the return. Our reasoning is that you had an opportunity to get with something you’d like - that’s the importance of shopping in a good wine retail shop or ordering wine at a restaurant where the waiters know the wine list or where you can consult a sommelier. You are encouraged to tell us what your style is and then its our job to help you find something in our inventory that’s right for you. But in plain business terms, we are hard pressed simply take a return if you just plain don’t like it because once a bottle is opened, it is no longer saleable - we wouldn’t ask our distributors to refund us on these.

OK, on to our list:
1. WHAT HAPPENED: Cork Taint - When you open a bottle of wine and pour your first glass, the aromas should be alive and it should take less than a minute or two for them to arrive at the entrance to your nostrils and entice you. If this doesn’t happen, if the wine smells flat - either moldy like your basement or attic, or it actually has the dead smell of the very cork you pulled from the bottle, then your wine is probably corked. It helps if you’ve had the wine before and remember what it tasted like the previous time. HOW DID IT HAPPEN: This is a condition that occurs when a chemical known as TCA finds its way into your natural cork. Oddly, this happens during the process used to clean the tree bark into which the corks are made with a kind of bleach. Your odds of cork taint are between 5-10% - pretty high! WHY HAVE WE SEEN SO LITTLE at wineLIFE? It turns out (not on purpose) that a majority of our wines have either screw tops or synthetic corks in them. No cork, no cork taint!

2. WHAT HAPPENED: Vinegar - Wine is just one step away from Vinegar anyway. Look at the word: Vinegar - VIN - Egar. The French word is Vinaigre, which literally means sour (aigre) wine (vin). HOW DID IT HAPPEN: All it takes is the presence of enough Acetobacter, the bacteria who’s job it is to turn wine into vinegar, and the deed is done. Most of the winemaker’s responsibility lies in protecting the wine from such ugly scenarios, but some are less inclined to intervene in the winemaking process than others - they’d rather let it do what it do, and as such, if they have not fought off the baddies with sulphur dioxide, the winery’s all purpose friend, then acetobacter may find a home in your bottle. WHY HAVE WE SEEN SO LITTLE at wineLIFE: Our inventory is largely under $20.00 a bottle. While we do have organic wines, sulphur dioxide is allowed in organic wine making (its a natural by-product of the fermentation process anyway, and SO2 is itself organic) At this price level, most winemakers don’t take chances! We carry wines of commerce - recent vintages, made, like 98% of the wines on the world market, to be consumed young.

3. WHAT HAPPENED: Madirization - the wine oxidized in the bottle. It might smell like sherry. Caution: some wines smell like that ON PURPOSE. Once again, you are encouraged to talk to the good folks at your neighborhood wine store or restaurant for advice. For the most part, though if you open a bottle and it smells sort of like eggs or feet, it is not a good thing. White wines may actually take on a brownish hue, as well. HOW DID IT HAPPEN: Usually this is a symptom of pour storage. Wine that is stored in a warm place can fall victim. A good wine retailer or restauranteur will buy from distributors who are careful about their warehousing, and will consider the temperature of their own storage place very thoughtfully. WHY WE HAVE SEEN SO LITTLE at wineLIFE: We work with very good, mostly small companies who really love their wines and take great pains to make sure you enjoy the magic as well. We are all wine people. We care.

4. WHAT HAPPENED: Reduction - Sometimes, wine will suddenly feel painfully shy, and the flavors will retreat into some unknown place, leaving very little in the glass for you to love. In some cases, you’ll only have rotten eggs! HOW DID IT HAPPEN: The jury is still out, but most experts agree that it can be prevented to a degree in the winemaking process. WHY WE HAVE SEEN SO LITTLE at wineLIFE: Good wine makers understand and can prevent this in their wine before bottling it. Also, quite simply, this condition can be very subtle and most people don’t spot it. They may simply decide that they weren’t wild about that wine and that they’ll try something else next time they shop.

In any of these scenarios, you are right to send it back and have it replaced, pick something else out or simply get your money back. But remember, if its from a store you’ve gotta bring the bottle back. Next week, I will cover other “wine faults” that are not eligible for a refund.

Hint: Girl’s Best Friend.

Love in Carneros

Fabulous weekend in Napa! Remember the list in my last post "Wine Tripping Rocks"? My top reason for loving wine travel was the people, and sure enough, it was the people who made the trip uniquely wonderful!

I have to start with Amelia Moran Ceja. On our Sunday Morning vineyard tour, Amelia herself – Founder and President of Ceja Vineyards – hosted a group of 10 Women for WineSense members from San Francisco, Seattle and New York at her beautiful winery and vineyards in the Carneros AVA. The sunny, beautiful weather was indeed a great help, but it was her hospitality and the stories she shared with us that made it a special afternoon. A lot was learned on many levels for everyone present. And of course, the wines were fantastic! Beautifully balanced with a sort of European vein of acidity that makes the mouth water – perfect for food!

Out the back door of the Ceja Vineyards tasting room on Las Amigas Road are two Bocce courts. I recalled an episode of The Cosby Show when Cliff’s Trinidadian friend came over to play (they called it Petanque) on one of the coldest days of the year in the back yard of the Huxtable’s Brooklyn Heights brownstone. In costrast, on this gloriously sunny day in Carneros, Amelia found us (the New York City Chapter girls) outside making up our own rules to the game. “The great thing about Bocce,” she sang – her voice is like a lovely, never-ending song – “is that you don’t have to have any athletic ability to play, so its fun for everyone!” She showed us how to skillfully toss the pallino (the target ball) into position, and showed us where we could stand to bowl our balls within its range – it was Chardonnay (green balls) vs Pinot Noir (red balls), with our “Vana White” keeping score on a large courtside abacus. We were soon joined by WWS ladies from Napa/Sonoma and Seattle, and Amelia treated us all to her new release Vino de Casa white blend while we played. The wine was crisp and delicious under the beaming late morning sun.

Soon we started the vineyard tour, where Amelia allowed us to get up close and personal with her budding vines. These are natural vineyards – lots of wild growth around the bases of trunks and posts and in between rows. She showed us the row of great oak trees where glassy winged sharp shooters, those beautiful but deadly-to-vineyards insects, live just at the edge of a healthy vineyard – I’m still amazed, perhaps we could learn from this type of harmonious coexistence. She showed us her home, which looked as though it had risen up right out of the soil in the midst of the vines , where she had just come from hosting 20 of her family members for Sunday morning breakfast – business as usual for the Cejas.

Love is evident in every ounce of Amelia’s spirit and in every aspect of Ceja Vineyards, from the river of life symbols that flow across labels and down the capsules of the bottles, to the symbol of the Camino Real bell Amelia spent a year researching to choose for a logo. You can view the bell hanging from the arbor archway entry to this beautiful place – the clapper signed by the smith who cast the bell, the winery’s ethos etched around the lip: Vinum, Cantus, Amor – Wine, Song, Love, or as Mr Ceja lovingly interprets it, Wine, Sex and Rock and Roll!

Albariño - From a Rainy Region for a Sunny Summer

Rías Baixas is an exciting wine region located in rainy northwestern Spain. Its local specialty is Albariño, a crisp white wine that has a character that changes seemingly with the changes in your own mood. I had my first Albariño of the season - Martin Códax Albariño 2008 ($13.00, easy to spot with a funky old school type of guitar on the label) - two days ago on the first of several much-hotter-than-usual days in New York City.

The retailer kept it in the fridge. At first, knowing this was more of a liquor store and that the people running probably had no clue, I was concerned about how long it had been in there - the 2008 has been on the market for at least 8 months now, and the label was beginning to warp. Nonetheless, I took a chance on it, and I’m glad I did. It was memorable, with stone fruit aromatics that reached up and caught my attention as I was still pouring my first glass. The wine had an herbal undertone - eucalyptus? or star anise? - it was hard to put my finger on, but easy across my palate with a mouthful of flavors, crisp acidity and a clean finish.

I strongly encourage that you espouse this grape this summer - well, have an open relationship, still try other wines, but make it your business to seek out Albariño all summer long, buy them, try them with your peoples, see what you think. Buy in the $10.00-$15.00 per 750ml bottle range - steer clear of Vinho Verde, its not the same thing! By summer’s end, you’ll be an Albariño connoisseur, and you’ll tell me which ones are best! I’d love that!