|
Pause that refreshes
By the weekend after Thanksgiving, just about everybody I know is ready for a break from the excesses of rich food and over-the-top wine. With the rest of the holiday season beckoning with its lure of more of the same, Sunday seemed like a great day for something plain and simple, on the table and in my glass.
What to pour with it? Something simple, something fresh. Something that celebrates the purity of simple fruit, with plenty of crisp acidity to sharpen the jaded appetite. Extra credit for something from an off-the-beaten-path region or uncommon grape ... Aha! There was the perfect 'tis-the-season antidote, right there in my queue of wines lined up for tasting: Vin de Savoie meets or exceeds all those criteria: It comes from well off the well-trodden wine roads, Savoie in Eastern France, bordering Switzerland on Lake Geneva near the source of the Rhone. It's made from a little-known regional grape, Jacquere ("Zhock-air"), and in this affordable bottling from Roger Labbé, it's delightfully un-oaked and unmanipulated ... just the thing for coming down from a holiday food high.
Today's Sponsor
Place your holiday gift orders before Dec. 2 and we'll send you a free copy of Leslie Sbrocco's latest book: The Simple & Savvy Wine Guide. The California Wine Club has been delivering gifts of holiday cheer since 1990. Send a gift of award-winning, limited-production wine hand-selected from California's best artisan wineries. Gift packages start at just $32.95 plus shipping and include a copy of the club’s entertaining wine magazine, Uncorked. For wine connoisseurs, choose from the upper-level club Signature Series. For those with a taste for international adventure, try the International Selections. Call 1-800-777-4443 to place your holiday gift orders or visit http://www.cawineclub.com. Be sure to ask for your free copy of The Simple & Savvy Wine Guide! Every single wine selected by The California Wine Club is 100 percent guaranteed, and there is never any bulk, closeout or private label wine - ever! It's this kind of commitment that has made The California Wine Club America's oldest and most trusted wine club.
This is a very light wine, transparent straw color brightened with a brassy tint. Fresh melon and apple aromas lead into a light, crisp flavor reminiscent of honeydew melon that segues into a snappy citric-limey finish. Simple but very fresh, relatively low (11% alcohol) and mouth-watering acidity makes it a fine food wine. U.S. importer: Vintner Select, Mason, Ohio; Michael Skurnik Wines, NYC, and other regional importers. (Nov. 26, 2006) FOOD MATCH: Fresh fruit, snappy acidity and balance make for a food-friendly flavor profile, and it's just fine with the mix of seafood, pork and aromatic Asian flavors in Cantonese shrimp with lobster sauce. VALUE: You won't find much more value in the $10 range for a refreshing, quaffable and food-friendly white. WHEN TO DRINK: This style of wine is best enjoyed young and fresh, during the first year or so after release; neither the wine nor its short synthetic-foam cork is intended for long-term keeping.
PRONUNCIATION:
WEB LINK:
FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE:
Today's article is cross-posted in our Netscape WineLovers Community, where we also welcome comments and questions. To contact me by E-mail, write wine@wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit.
PRINT OUT TODAY'S ARTICLE
When a Louisville family with long ties to the restaurant community faced catastrophic medical expenses, a dozen local chefs took it all off, or most of it anyway, posing for a tongue-in-cheek wall calendar, a PG-13-rated 12-pager in which they display just about everything but artfully concealed naughty bits. The resulting full-color calendar, "Louisville Chefs' Best Kept Secrets," is "very tasteful but very naughty." It seeks to raise money for Christina Bayens, 26, who has had cystic fibrosis since birth. Bayens received a double-lung transplant in St. Louis last summer, a costly venture that her parents, Mark and Linda Bayens, said "was too much for us to bear alone."
Christina is doing well, but bills still have to be paid. Whether you live in Louisville or just about anywhere, we thought you might want to lend a hand ... and enjoy this gently bawdy calendar for "foodies" throughout 2007. It's on sale at many Louisville-area restaurants, and we're offering it online for $20 (plus $2 postage) through my LousvilleHotBytes Website. Click for details or to get your calendar while they last: This week on WineLoversPage.com Some highlights of recent articles on WineLoversPage.com that I hope you'll enjoy:
• Vino 101: Gobble-licious pairings
• Hot topics in our WineLovers Discussion Groups
Turkey Day wine faves
Do you store wine in the fridge? Last Week's Wine Advisor Index The Wine Advisor's daily edition is usually distributed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (and, for those who subscribe, the FoodLetter on Thursdays). Here's the index to last week's columns:
• Myths busted? (Nov. 24, 2006)
• Dolcetto (Nov. 22, 2006)
• Beaujolais for Turkey Day (Nov. 20, 2006)
• Complete 30 Second Wine Advisor archive:
• Wine Advisor FoodLetter: Turkey for two (Nov. 23, 2006)
• Wine Advisor Foodletter archive: Administrivia To subscribe or unsubscribe from The 30 Second Wine Advisor, change your E-mail address, or for any other administrative matters, please use the individualized hotlink found at the end of your E-mail edition. If this is not practical, contact me by E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com, including the exact E-mail address that you used when you subscribed, so I can find your record. We do not use our E-mail list for any other purpose and will never give or sell your name or E-mail address to anyone. I welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. To contact me, please send E-mail to wine@wineloverspage.com All the wine-tasting reports posted here are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores and accept no samples, gifts or other gratuities from the wine industry.
Monday, Nov. 27, 2006
|
Domaine Labbé 2005 Vin de Savoie Abymes ($10.99)
