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Shiitake Mushroom & Sweet Potato Risotto along with Goose Bay Viognier
The shiitake mushrooms stayed dark brown while also keeping their texture and structure. The sweet potatoes were cubed a bit large, so they too remained whole but soft when reheating for the Friday Night Shabbos meal. As usual, do not complete the risotto the night before, instead leave that for Friday. Friday before sunset add in a cup or a cup and a half of rice milk and mix the dish up well. Then throw it cold in a 225 degree oven for an hour+ and it should come out warm and delicious.
Shiitake Mushroom & Sweet Potato Risotto Recipe
Three sliced onions
1tbl of Canola Oil for every round of browning
2lb of shiitake mushrooms – sliced
Sea Salt on each batch of onions, mushrooms, and sweet potatoes – to help with browning
2 yellow sweet potato
4 or more cups of broth brought to boil and then kept warm on the stove in a small sauce pan
1 to 2 tbl of olive oil
2 cups of Arborio rice
Basil
Garlic
Rosemary
1 cup of dry white wine
1 to 2 cups of rice milk – USE only before shabbos
Dice half the onions (1 and a half onion), slice the mushrooms and place in separate containers. Also dice the other half of the onions, and cube the sweet potatoes, and place in containers. Now in one pan heat up 1 tablespoon of Canola oil and sauté the onions until golden brown. Then add the mushrooms in a single layer at a time, and sprinkle them with sea salt. Make sure to not overcrowd the pan, so that you brown the mushrooms instead of steam them. After the mushrooms get nice and browned and slightly crispy pull them out. Add another tablespoon of Canola oil (making sure to not have the oil splatter as the pan is VERY hot at this point), and brown the next batch of mushrooms. Once all the mushrooms are done, remove them, and add in oil once more and then start on the sweet potatoes. You want them to get a bit browned, but more important than caramelization, is that they start to smell sweet as they give off their starch and break down the sugars. Remove them from the pan once they start to get very soft.
Then in a small sauce pan bring the 4 cups of broth to a boil and then keep them on the fire on a low simmer, for use in a few minutes. Now, in a large Dutch oven or Pot add a tablespoon or two of Olive oil and heat it up. Then add in the other diced onion(s) and sauté them until soft. Once browned, throw in the spices and herbs and the two cups of rice. Make sure the coat the rice with oil and once they start to dry and stick to the pot, throw in a cup of dry white wine. Once that is gone, put in a cup of water at a time, from the sauce pan, until it too is soaked up by the rice. Once the rice has soaked up three cups of water and the wine, throw in the mushrooms and sweet potato. Mix them all around until they are correctly integrated with the rice, and then throw in the last cup of water.
At this point the dish is complete and let cool over night. On Friday afternoon, remove the pot from the refrigerator and let the pot come to room temperature. Next, add in the 1 to 2 cups of rice milk, depending on how the mixture is setting up and place in an oven at 225 degrees. One to two hours later the risotto is ready.
When I smelled the risotto and the lovely smoky mushroom smell oozing out of it on Thursday night, I knew I needed a white wine with an equally powerful perfume and aroma. I went into the cellar and brought out a bottle of 2007 Goose Bay Viognier. I have spoken often about Viognier and about this particular bottle before. It has a lovely perfumed nose, but only after two hours of air time. Well folks, I have bad news, that nose is gone and so is the wine – mostly. It is still alive, but the nose and the lovely floral aspects are all but gone, which is a real shame. I only have one more bottle, so it is not too bad for me. Drink this up if you have more.
The wine note follows below:
2007 Goose Bay Viognier – Score: B to B+
This wine is on its way out 😦 The perfume nose lasts for only a brief moment, and even then it is not overpowering as it has in the past. The nose on this light gold colored wine has peach, mint, lychee, grapefruit, rich and spicy oak, slight perfume, and citrus. The mouth on this medium bodied wine starts off being oily and perfumed with peach, grapefruit, and lychee, but that quickly dissipates. The mid palate is bracing with acid and oak, and slightly out of balance. The finish is long with more acid, rich and spicy oak, and lemon tartness. As the wine airs, it loses much of its fruit and becomes a bit more balanced but also more like a single trick pony that is not so awesome. The mouth turns to quince, grapefruit, and jasmine. The mouth softens with less bracing acidity, but it too is short lived. Soon the wine becomes and oak bomb with lemon and slight notes of grapefruit. Drink up!
Lentil Rice Pilaf, Lemon & Pepper Roasted Chicken, Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc
The last time I was in Israel (for my Nephew’s wedding), I picked up some oily pilaf mix for rice from a spice dealer at the shuk. You can make it yourself, it is really simple. It is a combination of olive oil, raw lentils, dehydrated raw onions, and a couple of spices. The spices were not initially obvious, but the ones I could pick out were curry, cumin, paprika, and maybe cloves or ginger, though I could not be sure. Either way, we threw a cup of it into two cups of brown basmati rice, and it was ok, but it needed more of the mix, as the rice overpowered the minute amount of the pilaf mix. My wife made her famous lemon hot pepper chicken, and we had a nice relaxing shabbos.
To match the brown rice and lentil/onion pilaf, chicken, and fresh green salad, I opened a bottle of the Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc. I must say that I never really get tired of Goose Bay wines. They are a bit more expensive than when they came out, but they still keep a fine QPR (Quality to Price Ratio), and the ripe, floral, and perfumed nose and flavors of their wines, make them unique and wonderful to just enjoy.
The wine note follows below:
2007 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc – Score: B++
The nose on this light straw colored wine was hopping with ripe gooseberry, light petrol, lemon, green apple, lychee, melon, oak, and lemon/orange peel. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich with tart apple, lemon, gooseberry, and lychee. The mid palate is bright with bracing acid, light oak, and citrus peel. The finish is super long and tart, with lemon, gooseberry, and citrus peel lingering long on the palate after the wine is gone.
Roasted Sweet Potato and Mushroom Risotto, leftover Braised Flanken, and some Goose Bay Chardonnay
OK, I can already hear you all wondering out loud, has he really lost it? Yes, we had leftover alcohol and brown sugar braised flanken with some Chardonnay. To be fair, there was only a bit of the flanken left over, and it was not the main player on the table. The clear star of the evening was the killer risotto. Once again, Italy’s creme rice dish, showed its muscle and nutty flavors. We love Risotto, and have no problem enjoying it for days or weeks on end. So, when given the chance to make some, I jumped at it, and it came out wonderfully. We started by peeling, cubing, and then roasting the sweet potato in the oven at 400 degrees. In the mean time, I whipped together the usual risotto recipe, where we start with two or three onions diced and then sautéed in olive oil until they are perfectly caramelized. In the mean time, we started another pot with onion soup mix and water and brought it to a boil. Once the onions were caramelized, we threw in four garlic cloves and then some basil to boot. Once the garlic and herb coated the onions, we threw in two cups of Arborio rice, and made sure they were coated with the oil and herbs s well. Then starts the dance of hydration to dry to hydration to dry and – well you get the point. You first hydrate the pot with a cup of white acidic wine, and then let it get absorbed into Arborio rice and then continue hydrating the pot, a cup at a time, from the boiling liquid you have alongside it. In our case, it was the fore mentioned onion soup mixture. We kept hydrating the pot, until the half way point, when we threw in the thickly sliced mushrooms. They quickly started to release their liquid, and slowly started to shrink. After a couple of minutes, we resumed the hydration dance, until the risotto was 90% of the way there. At that point I threw in just enough liquid to get close but not complete the mixture. In other words just a cup or so less than what is needed to force the Arborio rice to release its starch. I did this because; I had another warming ahead of me on Friday night.
Risotto Recipe:
3 onions diced
16 oz of sliced mushrooms
2 large sweet potatoes cubed – roasted in the oven
4 or 5 garlic cloves
2 cups of Arborio rice
1 cup of white wine
5 cups of chicken/vegetable stock
2 cups of Rice Dream before reheating
Friday night, right before the Sabbath, I threw in the roasted sweet potato chunks, along with two cups of rice dream, and mixed it to the best of my ability, right before I left for synagogue. When I came back and took the dish out of the oven, it had come together perfectly. The starches had released themselves in a balanced manner, and they did not overrun the dish in any way. Instead, the risotto was integrated with its companions in a singular, creamy, and homogeneous manner. The sweetness of the sweet potatoes and the earthiness of the mushrooms, combined well with the Arborio rice, wine, and flavorings to add a dimension of nuttiness to the mix.
So back to the wine, yes I had a Chardonnay and I loved it. The Goose Bay Chardonnay was fine and did not need to be rushed or consumed quickly, but I did anyway. In the end, I could had drunk a red wine with the risotto and meat, but instead I enjoyed a wonderful wine, that was buttery and fruity and had just enough oak to make it easily stand up to the risotto, and not be conflicted by the flanken. The wine note follows:
2006 Goose Bay Chardonnay – Score: B+ / A-
The nose on this light gold to gold colored wine is rich and not your common run of the mill Chardonnay. The nose is almost perfumed Viognier style from the extra rich and ripe fruit. The nose continues with rich ripe peach, honey, lemon, sweet oak, ripe guava, alongside some almond or toast. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine carries the rich and perfumed nose with rich ripe peach, guava, and honey. The mid palate is balanced with still bracing acidity that almost is a bit tart, but that calms down over time, along with oak, and toast. The finish is almost mouth coating and lingers long on the palate with tart and bright fruit, rich butter, sweet oak, honey, and a fair amount of vanilla. This is a wine that is not at the end of the road, but is highly enjoyable right now, except for the tartness that fades with air.
Hanukkah Cheese and Wine party with Zinfandel, Viognier, and Bordeaux
This past Hanukkah saw my friends and family gathering around for an evening of cheese, latkes, and wine. The main issue revolves around finding kosher cheese. There are many issues that revolve around cheese for observant Jews, as listed in the link. For some time we observant Jews were left with things like Muenster cheese and American cheese – AHHH!! I am so glad to say that we now have real cheese my kosher friends! For our party we used cheese from many manufacturers. The first one hails from the state of Oregon – Tillamook Medium Cheddar Cheese. It is a nice cheddar cheese that does not taste like water. The second cheese we had was a lovely and simple Brie from the company called Les Petites Fermieres. The brie was nice and simple and not very complex or stinky, but interesting enough. The interesting part was that we had a chunk of the brie lying around in the refrigerator after the party and man did the brie turn into a nice, soft, stinky, and nutty flavored brie! So if you want the brie to get real interesting – all you need to do is unwrap the package, and leave it lying around in your fridge for a couple of weeks, and man will it turn into what I am used to when I think of brie. The third cheese we had was a simple but fun Les Petites Fermieres Monterey Jack. The Monterey Jack tastes creamy with a mild flavor, and matches well with soft wines. The rest of the cheeses we had on the table were a nice Blue Cheese and a couple of goat cheeses. I was not a huge fan of the Blue Cheese as it wrecked my palate and the goat cheeses were OK, but a bit too mild, to say the least.
For latkes we punted and served potato pancakes from Trader Joe. They were pretty good and that is all one can ask. Finally, we went with many wines – five to be exact. Three disappeared quickly, the Bordeaux was awesome a few hours after the party, and the Italian Zinfandel (Primitivo di Manduria) was quite nice as well, after it finished opening up and smoothing out later that night.
So many thanks for all the folks who came by and the wine notes can be found below:
2007 Château Haut Philippon – Score: B+
The nose on this garnet colored wine is a rich and enveloping nose of loamy soil, cherry, raspberry, cassis, and fig. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is a nice soft wine with an enveloping mouth that is not complex in any way, but after many hours of air, the wine fills out nicely. The tannins are soft but are ever present, along with cassis, and raspberry that mingle nicely. The mid palate is balanced with core acidity and integrating tannins. The finish is long with more cassis and raspberry, rich loamy soil, and soft tannins that linger long on your palate after the wine is gone. The wine fills out with nice mouth coating tannins. This is a nice wine for the price and nice as well because it is Mevushal!
2004 Borgo Reale Primitivo di Manduria – Score: B++
The nose on this light garnet to garnet colored wine is hopping with cherry, cola, raspberry, plum, pepper, mineral, and bramble/earth/dirt. The mouth on this medium bodied wine has integrated tannins, sweet core, ripe fruit, cherry, raspberry, and plum. The mid palate is balanced with core acidity, earth and dirt, along with cola. The finish is a long earthy/dirty finish with red fruit, dirt, and nice intense pepper. A nice Zinfandel wine, that works well. It is not a wine that will fill out, drink up and enjoy.
2005 Hagafen Zinfandel – Score: A-
This wine is now close to its peak and it is opening nicely now, it was the clear winner of the evening. The nose on this purple to black colored wine is black with ripe fruit, blackberry, plum, mounds of chocolate, spice, sweet oak, and vanilla. The mouth on this full bodied wine fills out with mouth coating tannins that are integrating, but still present. The wine shows a rich, black, and full mouth with blackberry, nice tannins, and semi-sweet oak with raisins. The mid palate shows more integrated tannins vanilla, rich and sweet oak, and balanced acidity. The finish is long and supports the wine’s full mouth with more rich oak, vanilla, and bright acid that carries the rich and ripe black fruit, acting like a bow around this lovely package.
2005 Herzog Zinfandel Special Reserve – Score: A-
OK, as an honest human I must admit I hated this wine a year ago! WOW, what a difference a year makes. Man, this wine needs a ton of air, but the wine cleans up really nicely with oxygen. The nose on this light garnet to garnet colored wine has a huge and rich nose that starts with rich oak, ripe Napa fruit, chocolate, plum, raspberry, fig, intense spice, and pepper. The mouth on this full bodied wine is rich and extracted, classic ripe red berry along with rich mouth coating sweet oak tannins that are now well integrated. The mouth softens with air and becomes rich and enveloping, nice. The mid palate is soft with ever present tannins that are going to stay for a couple of years, more sweet oak, and balancing acidity. The finish is super rich and long with sweet oak, ripe fruit layered on top a few shakes of pepper, along with chocolate that is balanced by nice tannins, and more rich ripe fruit. Get a bottle within the next few months and open it and taste it, and then leave it open for a couple of hours and come back and finish it with a table of friends!
2007 Goose Bay Viognier – Score: A-
The nose of this light yet bright straw colored wine was filled with classic Viognier perfume, grapefruit, apricot and citrus aromas. The mouth of this medium bodied wine is strikingly fruity while also being infused with the perfume quality. The mid palate is strongly acidic and laced with grapefruit, lemon, and green flavors. The finish is acidic in an almost puckering way. I must say, that a nice perfumed nose and mouth while still dry, is great with heavy foods like roasted duck or turkey. But because it is so dry, it fails to stand up to spicy foods. Personally, this wine felt a bit lighter than it did before, and maybe it is coming up against the wall. So, if you have a few bottles lying around, drink one now and check out where it is for you.
Goose Bay Pinot and Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserve Napa Valley
Recently we went to a party and I brought along two bottles of wine. The wine notes follow below:
2003 Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserve – Score: A-
This wine was really nice. The nose of this dark purple wine is screaming with blackberry, cassis, raspberry, and oak. The mouth on this full bodied wine is complex with layers of blackberry, cassis, chocolate, and oak. The mouth flows into the mid palate with nice acidity, oak, and nicely integrated tannins. The finish is long with more chocolate, oak, and black fruit flavors.
2006 Goose Bay Pinot Noir – Score: B-
This vintage is now gone 😦 It was nice before, but then poof it just died. I tasted this one two times within a short period of time, my bottle and a bottle during a wine tasting. The wine is over the hill and watered down. A real shame! That said the notes follow below:
The nose on the ruby colored Pinot is not as large as it once was; it starts off with coffee, cherry and a bit of raspberry. The mouth on this light bodied wine has cherry, and raspberry. The mid palate is almost bitter with earth and no oak to be found. The finish is acidic with flavors of cherry on the finish. Drink this up now if you can.
Burnt Lentil Soup, Roasted Herb Chicken, and Goose Bay Viognier
This past weekend found our family coming on by for a Friday Night dinner, and we were delighted to see them. Of course, I had to ruin something, and that was managed by burning my Lentil Soup. I was so angry, as I was cooking up the vegetables so nicely, they smelled like heaven and the lentils were nicely coated with oil slowly cooking up. I guess, I did not watch them closely enough and they burned! What a mess. I switched pots, but there was no saving it! At least the roasted herb encrusted chicken that my wife made, along with her famous whole wheat bread, was a hit. It was great to see the gang again, and in the house to boot was a blast. To pair with the chicken, we opened a Goose Bay Viognier that I should have opened earlier. I have posted about this before and I did not follow my own advice – AHH! Anyway, the conversation around the table was nice and paced, and that let the wine open up to where it was perfect, when we all had just a bit more in the glass 🙂
It was great seeing you guys and hope you swing by again soon! The wine notes follow below:
Goose Bay Viognier 2007 – Score: A
This is an awesome and fun white. When we first opened it I was hoping for the perfume to overpower me and take control of my senses. However, the nose did not open up right away, instead the mouth was full of the perfumed fruit while the nose was hiding behind the mask of fruit and oak. The nose would open later on, the notes here are from an hour or two of air.
The nose of this light yet bright straw colored wine was filled with classic Viognier perfume, grapefruit, apricot and citrus aromas. The mouth of this medium bodied wine is strikingly fruity while also being infused with the perfume quality. The mid palate is strongly acidic and laced with grapefruit, lemon, and green flavors. The finish is acidic in an almost puckering way. I must say, that a nice perfumed nose and mouth while still dry, is great with heavy foods like roasted duck or turkey. But because it is so dry, it fails to stand up to spicy foods.
Tajine Leftovers, Goose Bay Pinot Noir 2005, and Lagavulin 16 yr
Well, my nephew and friend are in town (as he studies towards his PhD) and they came on by for dinner. We openly told them that we were in leftover mode still, but that the food was killer good (unbiased of course). It was a great time we started off with some Four Gates Chardonnay 2002 (that I had chilling in the fridge), and continued on with the Tajine from Friday, along with a lovely Goose Bay Pinot Noir 2005. I have strong feelings towards the 2005 version. It has more pepper and life in it than the 2006 edition. Of course that is still subjective. However, the conversation and warmness was just great! It was a night that we truly enjoyed. We topped the night off with one of my favorite scotches; Lagavulin 16 Year and a few slices of chocolate cake!
The wine notes follow below:
2005 Goose Bay Pinot Noir – Score: A-
I really love this vintage. The nose on this light ruby colored wine is rushing with cherry, strawberry, and cloves. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is fresh and alive with raspberry, strawberry, and some cherry. The mid palate has hints of cloves while the finish is spicy and long. A real treat. I like this vintage more than the 2006, because of the spicy finish and the perceived fuller body. The wine opens up as it lies in your glass – the finish gets more pronounced as time goes on – very nice.
Tzora, Goose Bay, and Rothberg Cellars – Oh my Oh my!
This past week some friends from out of town came by, as did some from around town. It was a really nice time. Dinner started with a dense black bean soup – from the classic Moosewood Cookbook from Mollie Katzen. It has been modified to protect the innocent, but the core recipe stands strong. Dinner was sweet roasted summer vegetables, succulent hot pepper lemon roasted chicken, and a mushroom and onion Quinoa side dish.
To keep the dinner within reach we stayed with some robust yet tasteful wines. The first was a 2007 Goose Bay Viognier, followed by the 2004 Rothberg Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, and finally the 2004 Tzora Single Vineyard Shoresh (100% Merlot). In case people are not so up on Viognier – I thought I would add would re-post a description and contrast of Viognier and other white wines:
Viognier is a white grape that it is closer in style to a Chardonnay than to a Sauvignon Blanc. All wines can be operated on – but classically these are the styles that the white wines have:
1) The Sauvignon Blanc – can be as clean lined and crisp as a Sancerre and become fat and a bit ugly like in California, and everything in between. Still the classic lines of a Sauvignon Blanc are crisp clean lines, with intense fruit and floral flavors. If picked early there is more green, if picked too late there is more of a fruit bomb which winemakers turn into a fat wine because of all the sugars – or manipulate it by decreasing the alcohol. It is commonly high in acid and is not meant for a long shelf life – though many a Sancerre have lived long lives – mostly because of the crazy acid and mineral characteristics that come from the Terroir.
2) The Chardonnay is the wine that we all know and can have many different lines. It is a grape which by its nature is screaming to be modified. The grape loses its crispness early on as it ripeness but in its place comes the weight, fruit, and body. The more oak that is applied the more toast, espresso, smoke, and spice flavors get introduced. The grape has less acid as it ripeness but gains more fruit. This is the real quandary with Chardonnay – when do you pick it? When it sits on the vine for too long you get a ton of fruit, little or no acid and high alcohol. To counter act that wineries will dealcoholize the wine and add pH as well. Again – Chardonnay is a grape that is screaming to be managed. However, when done correct you can either get nice green and floral wine with less acidity than Sauv Blanc, but still enough to hold the wine up and enough fruit to carry the day. Or you can make it California style and lose the acid but gain nice weight and body (from the fruit, alcohol, and oak) – but pH added still tastes fake to me.
3) The Viognier grape/wine is a different beast. It is a wine that has distinct characteristics: perfume, floral notes and acidity, but it is a very picky grape. It is very easy to lose to mold and because of this wineries will plant roses next to the grape vines to act as a canary for detecting mildew early on. The grape needs to be picked late otherwise, it does not give the classic perfume that we get from the Muscat and Riesling grapes. Depending on if the wine maker puts the wine through malolactic fermentation (to give it a bit more weight) or let the wine lie in the must (to give it more perfume) or to let it have a bit of wood to give it roundness. In the end, the wine is not meant for long storage – hence the VERY early release dates on these wines and the wine should have the acidity, fruit, and perfume to make it a real winner.
Now back to the wines…
The unfortunate part is that my friends are not white wine drinkers – and this kills me! As I am trying to grow my knowledge of wines and trying to be more open minded about white versus red wines – my friends are not following along for the ride! So when I want to pop a white bottle to see what a Sancerre, Chardonnay, Chablis or a Viognier tastes like – I feel like a party pooper on my own table. This is an issue that I hope to find a remedy to soon.
The thing is that to me the Viognier stole the show. At first open it was nice – but the heady perfume that would soon be gracing our olfactory receptors was still closed up in the wines cold embrace. However, as the wine opened up so did the oohs and ahs around the room. They still did not appreciate the white wine, but they were able to discern that this was not just another white. The Rotherberg Cellar was the red winner around the room. It was heady with its own enveloping sensations. The nose was just over the top. The second we opened the bottle till some hours later the nose was still pumping and quite nicely as well. Beyond the nose, the mouth was smooth, full, and round – like a California Cabernet. The oak was NOT over the top, it accented the wine – it did not define it. The ripe fruit was obvious and maybe too obvious – but still a very nice showing. The Shoresh was raw, young and quite tannic. It was a stark contrast to the smooth Viognier and Cabernet. It was not a hit on the table and again – I disagree. The wine is more like a tiger ready to pounce and one that I think has not yet hit its peak. The Rothberg Cellar and Goose Bay are awesome specimens – but are in my eyes – at their peak. When Shoresh reaches its peak – in a year or so, it will have its day in the sun. Finally, I has tasted the Shoresh in Israel at the winery and the wine has made a clear shift from then. It is still as tannic – but I swear I had a double take when I realized that it tasted a lot like a cab – except for the clear and present licorice in the mid palate. The score is a bit lower, but one I am sure will return when it reaches its peak.
Tzora Single Vineyard Shoresh 2004 – Score A-
The nose on this garnet colored wine (100% Merlot) is laden with red berries, mineral aromas, cherry, and wood. The mouth on this medium bodied wine starts with tight tannins – though integrating and a strong and slightly complex attack of black cherry, and blackberry. The middle is filled with green, earth, and licorice. The finish is long and woodsy. This has changed since I last tasted it. If tasting blindly – I would have thought this to be a Cabernet Sauvignon. The licorice was a giveaway that it was not a cab – but still the earth, dense fruit, and cab like fruit – makes made do a double take.
Rothberg Cellars Winemakers Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 – Score: B+
The nose on this muddied reddish purple wine is crazy and may well be the wine’s best feature. It is an enveloping nose and one that lasts all night. The nose is filled with strong ripe fruit fragrance along with cranberry, pomegranate, and fig aromas. The mouth on this very smooth and full bodied wine is fruit forward with ripe fruit, blackberry and black plum notes. The mid palate is acidic in its core along with soft tannins and a hint of chocolate and tobacco. The finish is long lasting with fig and cranberry.
Beyond the technical details the things that stand out to me when thinking about this wine are:
- its acidic core
- its smooth nature
- its soft and integrated tannins
- the lack of overpowering oak – this wine is assisted to by the oak, it does not define it
- the muddied color and over ripe fruit flavors throw me a bit and lower the score
- the wine is at or just over its peak – drink up and really enjoy. This is not one to lay down for even a few more months.
- The wine felt like it was aged in French oak – no smoke or toasted spice just a nice and round fullness
Goose Bay Viognier 2007 – Score: B+ to A-
This is an awesome and fun white. When we first opened it I was hoping for the perfume to overpower me and take control of my senses. However, the nose did not open up right away, instead the mouth was full of the perfumed fruit while the nose was hiding behind the mask of fruit and oak. The nose would open and so I will say that the notes here are from an hour or two in – with the difference being the deep and almost striking perfumed nose that showed itself later.
The nose of this light yet bright straw colored wine was filled with classic Viognier perfume, grapefruit, apricot and citrus aromas. The mouth of this medium bodied wine is strikingly fruity while also being infused with the perfume quality. The mid palate is strongly acidic and laced with grapefruit, lemon, and green flavors. The finish is acidic in an almost puckering way. This in contrast to a previous post, where the acid was overpowering and not well integrated with the wine.
Beyond the technical details – this wine too has some nice take aways for me:
- The wine has oak but again in a supporting role – like it should be
- The wine is acidic to its core and here the acid truly integrates and lends a large assist to the wine
- The wine is perfumed in a way that also balances well with the oak and acid
- Finally, this too is a wine to enjoy now and for a few more months.
Wine Musings Blog 