Wednesday, March 26 2008

All White Now

99 bottles of wine on the wall . . .

It's been a white week at Chaos Cellars, and for a change it's all been good, from the familiar to the interesting to the exotic.

First up I got a chance to wash the taste of South Africa's most disappointing wine out of my mouth-literally. Last week's Tukulu debacle nearly put me off Chenin Blanc, but I gave it another chance, and I'm glad I did: The Winery of Good Hope Chenin Blanc was revelatory. From the Helderburg in the Stellenbosch viticultural area it was 13.9% alcohol with decent acidity and only a wee tot of residual sugar over very good fruit and minerals. From their website:

The secret of the Chenin harvest this vintage being to ensure that the grapes did not become over-ripe, thus making alcohols too high and losing natural acidity and crispness.

Well, of course! Now could you tell that to the clowns at Tukulu?

We had it with some prawn tacos and it was spiffingly good: apples, pears, honey, crisp acidity, full-bodied with a fat, leesy mouthfeel and great minerality. You could almost taste granite in the finish. Definitely a great wine.

The middle bottle is one I hadn't seen on it's own before. It's a Macabeo, a Spanish varietal usually grown in Rioja, but also used near Barcelona to produce Cava, the Spanish sparkling wine. They grow a bit in the south of France as well. This example, however, came from Castilla La Mancha, a searingly hot southern growing area of Spain. A little net-research found the winery, and I was highly bemused to find out is was on sale for 1.5 Euros a bottle (that's three dollars, and I paid over twelve bucks. Bless our tax system!). It's a very pale wine with hints of green at the edges. Apple, pear, hints of quince and a licoricey hit of anise cruises underneath a lightly grassy, floral top-note. The acidity was bracing--it's a very dry wine, and went gorgeously with seared tuna and wasabi mayo. Definitely a great summer wine.

Finally , good old Selbach. I love German Riesling and this Bernkastel example does everything as it should: it dishes out juicy apple flavours, May-blossom floral notes, and crackling acidity balanced by just enough sweetness to make it gulpingly delicious. I'm going to have to pick up a case or two of this just to meet my immediate patio needs for the summer. If it lasts that long.

Posted by Tim AT 5:40PM

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