AUTHOR: Dave McIntyre TITLE: White Wine Season Over? Bah, Humbug! DATE: 11/19/2006 01:16:00 PM ----- BODY:
If you’ve read much of my wine rantings over the years, you know that I don’t buy into the crapola about white wines going out of style once the leaves turn color. White wine will always have a place on my table (even if it is followed by a red) in any season, and here are two that I’ve enjoyed recently while wearing a sweater: Esporão Reserva 2004, Alentejo, Reguengos D.O.C., Portugal. I was first served this wine at lunch at the Fonseca port headquarters in Vila Nova de Gaia in September, a setting where anything was bound to taste good. But I was just as thrilled with it when I found it at Potomac Wines and Spirits in Georgetown for $11. Made with Portuguese grape varieties Roupeiro, Arinto and Antão Vaz (didn’t he have a bit part in The Legend of Zorro?), the wine is rich and creamy in texture (from American oak) with loads of stone fruit flavor. A great bargain, imported by Aidil Wines & Liquors in New Jersey. Konrad Sauvignon Blanc 2004, Marlborough, New Zealand. I bought this beauty a year or more ago at Schneiders of Capitol Hill on the recommendation of co-owner Jon Genderson. Then I forgot about it. Noticing the vintage recently, I figured I should drink it up before it lost too much of that acidity that makes New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc so delicious and develops the stewed asparagus flavor they can get after a few years. I needn’t have worried. This wine still packs plenty of zest and that grapefruit flavor we’ve come to love, along with more of what wine geeks call “minerality” than I’ve ever tasted in a Sauvignon Blanc produced outside the Loire. This wine was still a puppy, and a downright bargain at $16. No doubt the 2004 has given way to the ’05 or even the ’06 on retail shelves, but I will look for this one, buy several bottles, and do my best to forget about it again! Imported by Southern Starz Inc., Huntington Beach, Calif.

Labels: , ,

----- --------