Featured Wine

     Last year it was the Gazela Vinho Verde, this year, this little Dinosaur-clad bottle is going to be the hot weather staple.  It's dry as a bone with flavors of white peach, pineapple and a flinty, mouth-puckering finish.  We featured this wine about a month ago during a Friday tasting but it just doesn't seem fair to not share with the non-Friday crowd.

     Yet another lovely white wine from the south of France.  Whatever contest there is involving getting cheap, great wine over the ocean and into our tummies, they're winning.  Until now, wines made from the affordable Picpoul varietal of the Languedoc region have been relatively hard to find outside of France. Picpoul de Pinet wine is grown on the edges of the Thau lagoon where the region’s oyster farming and shellfish industry is based, so it will be no surprise that this is a white wine for seafood. 

     Our friends over at Tablas Creek in Paso Robles are one of the few wineries in the U.S. that grow Picpoul.  From their website: "Picpoul Blanc (also spelled Piquepoul Blanc) is one of the lesser-known Rhône varietals, but one that we think has a tremendous future in California. It is one of the thirteen permitted varietals in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, where it is used primarily as a blending component to take advantage of its acidity. Like the better known Grenache and Pinot, Picpoul has red, white and pink variants, though Picpoul Noir and Picpoul Gris are very rare. Literally translating to “lip stinger”, Picpoul Blanc produces wines known in France for their bright acidity, minerality, and clean lemony flavor."  Also, while researching this wine, we found that the LATimes actually did an article on this region/varietal last year.  Way to go LAtimes.  You can read it here.

     Like Velociraptors, this wine usually hunts you in pairs...just when you think that one empty bottle is terrifying enough, another empty bottle stealthily sneaks up and goes for the jugular.....on the way to your tummy.  Not a perfect simile.  Gimme a break.