New Zealnd Trio

New Zealand makes some wonderful Sauvignon Blancs. They come in two styles. Think Picasso and Rembrandt. One style, the style I dont like, is reminiscent of jalapeno pepper flavor in the wine without the heat. Yuck.

The other style, the good one, starts off with the wine tasting like tropical fruit, but before you can swallow, the wine changes into freshly grated grapefruit zest flavor. It rock all summer long and citrus works with fish.

My 3 favorites are Sole Beech $9.99, Oyster Bay $13.99 and Seresin $24.99, The difference between them, think 2% milk, milk and half and half. So save the Seresin for a serious summer meal. The others are guzzable.

May 7

On a previous day I blogged about a yummy Spanish Rose, Vina Rufina Rosada. My Mom took a bottle home and reports that as tasty as it was the first night, the rest of the bottle tasted better the next night. She stored the unused wine in the fridge too.

Here's another new grape for me, Airen.

I just bought an Airen from Spain. It is a light dry white wine that retails for $9.99. The rep tasted me on the wine twice before I bought it. The first time I was so unprepared for its flavor, it shocked me, and frightened me a little, yes wine tasting can be scarey, so I asked for a retry. The second time, a few weeks later, it was exactly the same. This is a good thing because the bottle variance with a wine that I have no track record scares me. I have to get over this phobia.

The wine is light and dry, and Pinot Grigioish, but it has the amazing flavor of pear and banana. Think about that combo pears and bananas. Weird, yet delicious. Not sweet at all. Its all about the perfume of the wine. Waiting for the next hot day to give it a go at home, while watching the boys do the lawn.

April 24

Another sign of summer. About 10 years ago a woman comes in the store and asks if I can get her a wine she had in a fancy eatery in NYC. They charged her $14 a glass and she was willing to spend up to $30 a bottle for it. It took a couple of weeks but I tracked the wine down and at the time it sold for $7.99 a bottle. Since then the wine has gone up to $9.99 a bottle, it is a staple in the store and we sell out every year right around Labor Day.

It just came in today.

Les Rials Loin de l'Oeil 2009 is a light crisp off-dry white wine that is just delightful. Need a bottle to go to someone's house? this works. Need a bottle for the back porch when it is just too hot? This works. Need a bottle with summer salads? This works.

It's somewhere from the south of France. It's cheap. It's delicious. Chill it up, open it up, and have some fun.

92 today

This is just ridiculous. Too hot. And too many bugs too soon. Yech! One last summery wine and that's it for a while.

Portugal and Spain make up the Iberian Peninsula. Geography is done now. Yesterday, it was Portugal and Vinho Verde. Today Spain and Rueda. Tomorrow, red wine I promise.

Due northwest of Madrid, oops, I lied about one geography lesson, is the region of Rueda. It sort of looks like parts of New England with rolling hills of gravel, geology that time. In Rueda there is a white grape grown that makes one of my favorite wines for summer dinners, or apps. The grape, Verdejo, is also grown in Portugal with the same name, different spelling and in parts of Italy, with a completely different name. The wine produced from Verdejo, at least the ones I like, are light and crisp in the style of an Alpine Pinot Grigio, and have a wonderful lemon blossom flavor. To my palate, lemon is one of the universal seasonings, it goes with just about anything and the lemony sensation in Verdejo is a summer classic waiting to be discovered. Waiting for the 2009's to arrive, I have a little of the 2008 Las Brisas at $9.99 a bottle left. The wine can be served straight from a cold condensationally challenged ice bucket.

We will be getting others in the store depending on the tasting of the 2009s. I am optimistic about their quality.