WTN: Lis Maris (SB/PB Friuli blend)

[Hoke]

di Lenardo Vineyards Lis Maris Santa Pazienza Bianco 2008, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Bianco from the Venezia Giulia IGT.

I can report that I definitely got my money's worth (under $10) with this bottle.

Consumed with freshly made clam chowder and heavily stuffed kalamata olive ciabatta.

Massimo (Call me Max), owner and winemaker, has the right sense of direction here: this wine is clean and
bright and balanced, with the acidic and grassy-herbal Sauvignon balanced out and filled in with the softer, rounder, fleshier Pinot Bianco.

Sometimes, not always but sometimes, Sauvignon Blanc from Friuli-VG can be a bit shrill and overly lean (which I like, honestly, but not in the context of clam chowder and olive ciabatta on a slovenly Friday); this blend toned down the Sauvignon shrillness and brought out the richness and slight creaminess of the Pinot Bianco...which put it perfectly in tune with the chowder!

But the essential nature of the wine handled the milk and butter of the chowder to finish clean and strong and tart in the mouth, and it could stand up to the meaty, oily spice of the kalamata as well.

[Mark S]

...sometimes, Sauvignon Blanc from Friuli-VG can be a bit shrill and overly lean...

About sums up my experience with a recent Edi Kante Sauvignon: shrill-in-spades, could have been used to scare people in a haunted house scarefest.

[Hoke]

...sometimes, Sauvignon Blanc from Friuli-VG can be a bit shrill and overly lean...

About sums up my experience with a recent Edi Kante Sauvignon: shrill-in-spades, could have been used to scare people in a haunted house scarefest.

That's a problem with SB, right enough. Some of the enamel-eroders I've had have been so acidic they make me pucker like I'm sucking on alum, Mark.

And I'm an acid head! So I can see why a lot of folks don't care for SB---well, at least in a certain style, anyway. And that's why winemakers have gone to great lengths at time to figure out how to balance and moderate that shrillness. Some try blending in a bit of oak-matured wine to tame the acidity and fill in the hollow middle of a SB; some try blending Chardonnay or Semillon, or in Bordeaux Muscadelle, to achieve the same effect.

In this case, with the food, it was all about balance, and the judicious Pinot Bianco addition to the Sauvignon was just the right touch.