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Whenever our menu calls for a rich, floral white wine, this is one we call up from the Bullpen.  It is a great all-year wine, but especially appropriate when seasonal dishes include roasted squash, roasted chicken, savory soups and the like.

Tasting Notes
A luscious floral nose of exotic fruit, sweet spice, flower blossoms and hints of grapefruit and apricots.  Such aromas often presage a sweet wine, but try a sip of this one and noooo…

…On the palate this wine leans towards the zaftig, a bosomy wine offering pleasures of the flesh (and yes, they’re real), but with a bright personality and braininess that keep you intellectually intrigued. It finishes with an almond-like bitterness (which also provides an obvious bridge ingredient when pairing with food) that plays counterpoint to its flowery nose.

Food Pairings

Viognier isolates some less adventuresome wine lovers because of this contrapuntal relationship between sweet and bitter.  But I dare any such doubter make their way through a bottle of this wine and tell me they haven’t jumped on the Viognier bandwagon with both feet.  Its pleasant, viscous mouthfeel makes it great on its own, but it’s also a fine table wine when paired with medium-bodied dishes.

One key to successful food and wine pairings is to match the weigh of your wine to the weight of your food ( where “light” = crisp and acidic foods with relatively simple flavors and “heavy” = fatty dishes or those with complex layers of flavor).  Another key to successful pairing is to focus on a flavor component that can act as a bridge between the food and wine.  To pair well with Viognier your dish might feature the flavors of  citrus, apricots or golden raisins  (in a stuffing or reduction sauce or as a compote) .   This wine also shines with roasted chicken (especially as a sandwich) or squash (perhaps par-boiled then roasted with lardons and a reduced balsamic-pomegranate sauce!) .  Any dish featuring the flavors of toasted almonds or other nuts tends to be friendly with Viognier as well.

For a most happy pairing, try this wine with my recipe for Macadamia-Encrusted Tilapia in Orange-Cream Sauce.

A Note About Screwcaps
“Guaranteed Taint Free!”

It’s hardly worth mentioning screwcaps anymore, as the American market comes to appreciate the wisdom of this once maligned closure. Many can still remember the days when premium white wines sometimes bore the scent of a tainted cork – easily detected by an identifiable stink in the wine, and a loss of its precious fruit aromas. And in the case of this wine, that would indeed be a shame. Hence, the screwcap/

Winemaking Notes

This wine was fermented in stainless steel at cool temperatures – a technique used to preserve an aromatic wine’s more subtle and ephemeral aromas. It is very crisp and fresh and refreshing and if you don’t buy all of this wine I’m going to drink whatever is left myself.

Winemaker Notes

Almost 20 years ago, Andrew Murray burst onto the wine scene with his eponymous winery and a fistful of impressive scores from wine critics who believe in such things.  This time frame seems impossible when you meet the boyish guy whose face stubbornly refuses to age (though I bathe in a bit of schadenfreude over his receding hairline!).   He is actually in his 40′s – no longer a Wunderkind, now just a wonder (named “2004 Tastemaker of the Year” by Food and Wine Magazine) .  Andrew was first bitten by the wine bug during a tour of France in the 80′s and that eventually grew to an apprenticeship in Australia, a degree in wine making, and then the aforementioned burst onto center stage.

Stylistically, his wines tend to be big and rich.  After several vintages with excessive alcohol (particularly in his Syrah) his wines now seem to have matured one more generation, and show better balance and food compatibility – the good manners you want when bringing them to the table!

Andrew Murray, 2006 Viognier, Santa Ynez Valley

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Dave the Wine Merchant
Dave@SidewaysWineClub.com

Quote of the Day
“You seem very calm for a woman who’s getting married” I said, and she nodded. “It’s on my to-do list” she said, “so there’s no point in agonizing about it”
~ Story People (Selected in tribute to my newlywed friends, Steve and Penny)