The Great White Yonder

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Sonadora

Well folks, it’s that time of year again.  Our annual pilgrimage to the Sonoma area.  This will be our 4th trip as a couple and it never gets old!  I wish we could just stay and never come home.  Having only made our first visit in 2006, by the end of this visit we will have spent a total of 20 days in the area…with me having a few more spent on my own! Not bad given we live in Virginia.

For a twist, we are going to go to Napa for 2 days to taste and visit with some folks who have kindly offered to show us around. I’ve only been to Napa once, and enjoyed my visit to Titus…thinking we’ll go back there so Matt can enjoy it too!  That should be Saturday with Thea and ending up with up at Lisa’s for dinner.  We also have a full day planned with some lovely hosts I’m looking forward to meeting on Friday.

As far as the Sonoma part goes, I’ve got so many people I want to see and so many places I want to take Matt…I’m just not going to be able to fit them all in, sadly.  That’s ok though, gives me an excuse to go back! We’ll be stopping in to see some old favorites (hopefully Coffaro, Teldeschi, Mounts, and Michel Schlumberger) and making some new friends over at Mill Creek.  I’d also love to be able to go taste with Penny of Coral Mustang (eek, I need more hours in the day!!) and Patrick of Iridesse will be escorting us around on our first afternoon in town!

Matt seems to think this is work…but really, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do on my vacation!  Plus, I humor him and go on ski trips, so he gets to humor me and my wine tasting!  What do you think?  Anything else I just MUST do that I’m missing?

Filed under: California, Wine | 5 Comments »

Viognier On My Mind

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from the PR folks for Wine of Chile.

Viognier.  I love it.  And I find it to be truly underrated/underappreciated.  People don’t seem to talk about it much, but that’s okay with me, more for me to drink and enjoy.  Actually, shush, maybe we shouldn’t talk about here either…wouldn’t want it to get all popular and such 😉  I chose the 2008 Casa Silva Viognier from the Colchagua Valley in Chile for tonight.  It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.5% alcohol by volume, and looks to retail for somewhere between $16-$20.

This wine had a beautiful nose.  It smelled of honeysuckle, apricot, peach, stone fruit, honey, spice, orange blossom, and flowers.  In the mouth I found lemon pith, apricot, peach, orange, and flowers.  Overall, the wine showed as crisp and lean in the mouth with nice acidity and lovely fruit.

Filed under: Chile, Viognier, White, Wine | 3 Comments »