2008 Tallulah Como

Napa White Shows Off Less-Common French Grapes

I like white wine. I actually do. If you’re reading this, chances are decent that you yourself are a wine blogger, or at the least you’re kind of a wine nerd. So maybe you haven’t experienced, recently, the concept that so many people have in life, which is that they are either “white wine” drinkers or “red wine” drinkers.

Me, I’m a wino (and a discussion about “taking that term back” would be a worthy one, for another time).

While I once would have sworn up-and-down that red wine is the only wine for me, I have long ago now (or so it seems) accepted that good wine comes in many different—ahem—varieties.

Tropical Vacation Approved!

And this, dear readers, is the kind of white wine I get especially excited about.

First off, the varietal makeup here is not something you’re going to be particularly familiar with, as it’s predominantly a lesser-drunk-here-in-the-States Rhône Valley grape (marsanne), mixed with an only-slightly-more-common Rhône grape (viognier) and the Queen of White Wine (and of Burgundy), chardonnay.

More precisely, the 2008 Como from Tallulah Wines is Napa Valley juice, and 53% marsanne, 37% chardonnay, and 10% viognier.

So, what’s it like? Tasty. Tasty, tasty, tasty.

The wine is bright in the glass, and gives off a bright, sharp yellow-gold color. The nose starts off a bit predictable—featuring a pear note off the bat—then starts throwing you curve balls, as some light spices mix with ripe melon and apricot aromas.

The wine is medium-to-full bodied, which I found I expected due to its color and viscosity when swirled. The spice notes from the nose mix with a tropical cornucopia of citrus (mostly orange), pineapple, and cantaloupe.

The fuller-bodied nature of this wine keeps me from describing it as particularly “crisp,” but the tropical, melon-revolving aromas and flavors are so refreshing, that this still works wonders as a chilled summertime white.

Even if you’d never heard of marsanne.

Verdict: A-

Tallulah Wines

Tallulah Wines

2008 Lambert Bridge Bevill Vineyard Viognier

Sonoma-Grown Northern Rhône Brings It Home

The Barrel/Tasting Room at Lambert Bridge

It was hot this weekend.

Walnut Creek, my home and native land (so to speak) sits in the central Contra Costa valleys of the East Bay. It gets hot. The Oakland hills block any cooling effect that would be brought on by proximity to the San Francisco and San Pablo Bays, so we sit in this little valley and we cook.

On days like we had this weekend, a crisp, refreshing, acidic white wine—served appropriately chilled—is just what the doctor ordered.

From Dry Creek Valley (which does not suffer from blazing heat like my own Diablo Valley), Lambert Bridge Winery brings this 2008 vineyard-designated viognier.

Lambert Bridge is a winery I’ve written about before, after being impressed by their petite sirah. While this wine may not come off as epic like that one did, it’s still a very refreshing, still nuanced, crisp white that should be high on your list for hot summer days (or even warm summer nights).

The Bevill Vineyard Viognier looks like a lot of other aromatic white wines: it’s almost clear, with a slight golden shimmer in the glass. On the nose are notes I’ve come to expect from viognier: apricot, tropical fruit (like mango and a hint of banana), and this aromatic floral thing that seems very standard in viognier, but I find very hard to pin down to a specific descriptor. “Floral” just ends up being written in my notes. Hopefully it’s descriptive enough.

The 2008 Bevill is a clean, crisp white wine with sharp acid that makes it an excellent food pairing wine (especially with more delicate fare, like seafood or lightly-dressed pasta dishes). However, there’s plenty going on here—more apricot and tropical fruit, like from the nose—to make this wine well worth your while for solo drinking. Like maybe on the back porch on a hot Walnut Creek afternoon.

With white wine like this in the cellar, I fear no 96-degree day. Neither will you.

Verdict: B+

2008 Vidal-Fleury Cotes-du-Rhone Blanc

Another Amazing Value From The Rhone Valley

People often ask me, when they find out I spend some manner of time writing about wine, what my favorite “value” wine is. And this has different meanings for different people. To one, spending $20 on a bottle of wine may seem like a splurge, reserved only for special occasions; to another, a good wine for $20 may seem like the steal of the century. Neither of these hypothetical people is wrong.

For me, I consider a wine a “value wine” if it clocks in at under $15 and tastes like it costs at least twice that. One of my all-time favorite value wines is the Perrin et Fils Cotes-du-Rhone, to which I gave an A-, and for which you need only slap down between $8-$10. Not too shabby.

Here’s a white, from the same part of the world, with similar results. The 2008 Vidal-Fleury Cotes-du-Rhone Blanc is 100% viognier, which I have been enjoying tremendously for a few years. We have a thing, viognier and I.

The ’08 Vidal-Fleury is a bright, almost glowing, golden in the glass. Very pretty. The nose is sweet in a pleasant way, and the notes that dance around your nostrils will delight you: honey and apricot mingle with fresh flower beds along a mountain stream. On the prettiest damn April day you ever saw.

On the palate, the experience continues, and the wine doesn’t disappoint. Light-bodied, crisp and bright, the honey and apricot notes continue to show themselves, and there is a summery grassiness to the mid-palate that I found absolutely divine. Of course, I like stinky barnyard sauvignon blanc (and this is not anything like that, I’m just saying) so a little grassiness is great for me. Others may not love it, but it is right up my alley.

So, I said this is a value wine… what’ll it run you? About $11 for the bottle. None too shabby, that. A fantastic wine, at any price.

Verdict: 93/100

2008 Vidal-Fleury Cotes-du-Rhone Blanc

2008 Vidal-Fleury Cotes-du-Rhone Blanc