Viognier

As wine lovers and a couple who just generally frequents wineries in Maryland, other states in the country and all over the world really, the pandemic left us with a pretty large void where visiting wineries and tasting new wine used to be. From that void, and my similar love for food and cooking, birthed the idea for at home vertical wine and food pairings and tastings. Our  very first was bordeaux. Using our new wine.com membership, I ordered a Chateaux Beaumont Haut Medoc 2016, Massaya Reserve 2011 and Chatueax Maris La Touge 2017 and after researching online the best food pairings, planned a menu of blueberry and brie puff pastry bites, cheddar and bacon mini quiches, roast beef and provolone crostinis, along with a small charceuterie spread of smoked gouda, bell peppers, crackers and hummus. We had been watching a lot of The Wine Show and Somm on Netflix where millenials were shamed for all of their wine purchases being for consumption and none for aging. This tasting had an alterior motive for also finding a great wine or two to get our collection started. We have a 130 bottle wine rack built in under the stairs in our basement that we, shamefully, were under utilizing ourselves. We discovered that this was the most fun we have had in our living room together in a long time and from that bi-monthly vertical wine tastings with food pairings was born. The 2016 was the favorite noting "a little fruit, complex  smoky finish, definitely will hold up to some aging." The 2011 was "a little fruitier with a silky, cocoa finish." The 2017 was "lighter with an interesting sour note." I highly recommend all three. The food was great, as well. Probably our most successful tasting to date was viognier in February of 2022. All four wines were great and each food pairing was absolutely perfect with them. As the state grape of Virginia, this is a varietal that a large majority of wineries in Virginia and Maryland grow and produce so we have consumed quite a bit over the years. For this tasting we had viogniers from Boordy Vineyards in Maryland, Stone Tower in Virginia, Vint Hill in Virginia and Sobon Estate in California just for an east coast, west coast comparison. Per my research online, I planned a menu of  grilled shrimp tacos complete with cole slaw, mango salsa and an avocado crema, sweet and sour chicken bites, goat cheese, cashew and orange marmalade bites, assorted danishes, dried pineapple and gruyere. Viognier is high in fruit and alcohol and low in acidity which makes creamy and spicy food great matches. The east coast varietals had notes of orange, apricot, lime and minerals while the west coast has more tropical mango and pineapple, along with rose and vanilla. It  is a great varietal for oaking and is an all around great wine. In addition to everything we have learned about the wines and food we have tried during these tastings, we have realized that the more local wines we include, the more we enjoy them. A lot of liquor store wines are very much the same from producer to producer and contain a lot of chemicals and additives. Local wine is just better and there is so much variation from winery to winery, state to state and country to country. Buy local and you won't regret it.