STAN’S PICK FOR JULY 2011

I know this is a mouthful to say and may seem intimidating. Sorry, but that seems to be the nature of French wine. Way to many consonants and syllables. Basically this white wine is a combination of two grapes that grow in the Cotes de Gascogne region of southwest France, ugni blanc and colombard. You may remember seeing a large bottle of Carlo Rossi colombard on the shelf of your local grocery store. The combination of colombard and ugni blanc from this area of France seems to always result in a wonderful little white that is usually cheap. That is the case with this wine.

On the nose there is a wonderful bouquet of grapefruit, fresh cut grass, minerals and peach notes. As this white gets closer to room temperature the smells are incredible. I almost think you could bottle this and the women would go nuts over it rivaling any perfume on the market. Enough already, let’s get to how it tastes. Very refreshing on the palate with a nice steely edge to the bright grapefruit, peach pit, grass and citrus notes that penetrate your mouth into a lingering finish. I would call this wine “bracing” on the palate with a nice fruit edge and not too dry. Dry enough for shellfish, but certainly tasty enough to enjoy on the deck,porch, hood of your car or wherever would like to drink it. I had it with my popcorn last night and it was perfect.

In Washington State this wine is distributed by Cavatappi Distributing. So make sure the wine person at your local store knows about this little gem for the summer. At nine bucks you can’t beat it, even if you cannot pronounce it. Cheers! Stan The Wine Man