Winter Whites
On last year’s California vacation, a central coast wine country road trip was a foregone conclusion (and, better late than never, source for a forthcoming column). Both because it's icy and cold in New York and because we're trekking back to California for a much-needed mid-winter break, my thoughts have turned to wine country. The foods of winter often pair best with red wine or, for that matter, outright spirits, but snowscapes make me think of white wine. A beautifully expressed white wine evidences a crisp quality that, when I'm feeling poetic about winter rather than battered by it, harmonizes with the etched elegance of the season. Here are some of my favorite winter whites, suitable both for dinnertime and special occasions.
In the land of tasting rooms made famous by the movies, the first such we visited was Gainey. In a tasting room so wonderfully rustic it’s just this side of a stage set, we were introduced to Gainey 2009 Limited Selection Riesling. Referring to my tasting notes from that day, I find I wrote "intense and concentrated" while John noted "frosty and sweet." All of these apply to the one wine that every taster in the room ordered on the spot. I decided then and there that this would be the white we would ship home to serve with Thanksgiving dinner, intuiting that it would agree with the complex flavors of turkey while counterbalancing the heavy quality of the Thanksgiving meal itself. This was a move that was questioned, at least not aloud, by no guest at last year’s table. This saucy wine opens with summery floral notes before sliding into apple, honey and apricot flavors with an icy, spicy finish. It harmonized perfectly with turkey, as it would with most poultry, especially in cream sauces, glazed foods such as pork or salmon, pasta, even dessert.
As a result of a raid on the local wine shop, last Thanksgiving we also served Otto’s Constant Dream Sauvignon Blanc. According to their website, Otto’s is the result of serendipity, playing out via a friend who designed a wine label to lay over a bottle he was bringing to a dinner party that was being hosted by a wine whiz whose husband had connections in the New Zealand wine biz. Thus out of the depths of creative Brooklyn and the sunshine of Marlborough slopes we have Otto’s Sauvignon Blanc. Tasters loved this wine for its expression of that flinty quality that Sauvignon Blanc can have and that seems to be the specialty of the House of Marlborough. The middle is grassy and citrusy, with herbal aromatics and a solid stony foundation that one of my guests described as “chewy.” It’s a perfect winter white to pair faultlessly with seafood, in case the indulgence of lobster is a factor in your Valentine’s Day plans. If not, it would serve well in office as an informal quaff for weeknight dinner, or alongside a complimentary red for a winter weekend get-together.
It seems I spend half of my wine time defending Chardonnay, but in defense of the accusers, you’d be hard-pressed (pun intended) to find a grape that’s been more mishandled in the name of mass consumption. In defense of the defendant, though, when expressed correctly, this grape yields a sleek, buoyant juice that should give anyone reason to smile. For my birthday last month I was treated by my dear friends Kat and Douglas to an evening at no less a temple of the good life than Terroir, where I started the evening with a glass of French Chardonnay that was just exactly the exemplification of what this wine should be. Cotes du Juras Domaine de l'Aigle A Deux Têtes 2007 has a bright, effervescent quality that will surprise drinkers who think of chardonnay as what’s poured out of a box during a house party. Coy green apple notes in the bouquet develop into a luxurious layer of walnuts and burnt sugar on the palate, in a silken sip as lush and curvy as the cut and drape of a Dior suit. This wine is equal parts flirtation and romance, so splurge on a bottle either for your Valentine’s Day dinner – or, even better, après.
In the spirit of different styles for different smiles, if your palate directs you to oaky chardonnays, then you may want to try Toasted Head. Oaked chardonnays take on a quality described as “buttery” that is the result of the handling of this grape, which is hearty by constitution but difficult by temperament, by manipulating contact with oaken barrels or chips. If, therefore, we think of Chardonnay as an operatic diva, then a good unoaked chard is Carmen to the oaken chard’s Valkyrie. Toasted Head strikes a tonic note in the Wagnerian cataclysm. Though the oaken middle in unmistakable, the wine opens with a strong note of banana that leads to a peach-blossom quality that is not entirely unpleasant and both of which are slightly jarring in a bottle of table wine. This surprise merits this wine a mention, as it seems to me to resonate with the notion of quality time spent together around Valentine’s Day. It would be fine alone or with some light snacks, and its vanilla quality might work nicely with a sinful dessert.
In the land of tasting rooms made famous by the movies, the first such we visited was Gainey. In a tasting room so wonderfully rustic it’s just this side of a stage set, we were introduced to Gainey 2009 Limited Selection Riesling. Referring to my tasting notes from that day, I find I wrote "intense and concentrated" while John noted "frosty and sweet." All of these apply to the one wine that every taster in the room ordered on the spot. I decided then and there that this would be the white we would ship home to serve with Thanksgiving dinner, intuiting that it would agree with the complex flavors of turkey while counterbalancing the heavy quality of the Thanksgiving meal itself. This was a move that was questioned, at least not aloud, by no guest at last year’s table. This saucy wine opens with summery floral notes before sliding into apple, honey and apricot flavors with an icy, spicy finish. It harmonized perfectly with turkey, as it would with most poultry, especially in cream sauces, glazed foods such as pork or salmon, pasta, even dessert.
As a result of a raid on the local wine shop, last Thanksgiving we also served Otto’s Constant Dream Sauvignon Blanc. According to their website, Otto’s is the result of serendipity, playing out via a friend who designed a wine label to lay over a bottle he was bringing to a dinner party that was being hosted by a wine whiz whose husband had connections in the New Zealand wine biz. Thus out of the depths of creative Brooklyn and the sunshine of Marlborough slopes we have Otto’s Sauvignon Blanc. Tasters loved this wine for its expression of that flinty quality that Sauvignon Blanc can have and that seems to be the specialty of the House of Marlborough. The middle is grassy and citrusy, with herbal aromatics and a solid stony foundation that one of my guests described as “chewy.” It’s a perfect winter white to pair faultlessly with seafood, in case the indulgence of lobster is a factor in your Valentine’s Day plans. If not, it would serve well in office as an informal quaff for weeknight dinner, or alongside a complimentary red for a winter weekend get-together.
It seems I spend half of my wine time defending Chardonnay, but in defense of the accusers, you’d be hard-pressed (pun intended) to find a grape that’s been more mishandled in the name of mass consumption. In defense of the defendant, though, when expressed correctly, this grape yields a sleek, buoyant juice that should give anyone reason to smile. For my birthday last month I was treated by my dear friends Kat and Douglas to an evening at no less a temple of the good life than Terroir, where I started the evening with a glass of French Chardonnay that was just exactly the exemplification of what this wine should be. Cotes du Juras Domaine de l'Aigle A Deux Têtes 2007 has a bright, effervescent quality that will surprise drinkers who think of chardonnay as what’s poured out of a box during a house party. Coy green apple notes in the bouquet develop into a luxurious layer of walnuts and burnt sugar on the palate, in a silken sip as lush and curvy as the cut and drape of a Dior suit. This wine is equal parts flirtation and romance, so splurge on a bottle either for your Valentine’s Day dinner – or, even better, après.
In the spirit of different styles for different smiles, if your palate directs you to oaky chardonnays, then you may want to try Toasted Head. Oaked chardonnays take on a quality described as “buttery” that is the result of the handling of this grape, which is hearty by constitution but difficult by temperament, by manipulating contact with oaken barrels or chips. If, therefore, we think of Chardonnay as an operatic diva, then a good unoaked chard is Carmen to the oaken chard’s Valkyrie. Toasted Head strikes a tonic note in the Wagnerian cataclysm. Though the oaken middle in unmistakable, the wine opens with a strong note of banana that leads to a peach-blossom quality that is not entirely unpleasant and both of which are slightly jarring in a bottle of table wine. This surprise merits this wine a mention, as it seems to me to resonate with the notion of quality time spent together around Valentine’s Day. It would be fine alone or with some light snacks, and its vanilla quality might work nicely with a sinful dessert.
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