Al B Sure!……No; Alvarinho

I can tell you how I feel about wine, nite and day. Yeah I said it! I could not resist. It is August all ready. The summer has flown by, which it seems to do the older we get. I decided that since it feels like the summer is almost over that I would take this last month to step a little further outside of my comfort zone and try and do some things that I have either never done or don’t have a ton of experience with. For a Virgo, this is a stretch, to say the least. I am not just focusing on my love of wine and food, but I am looking at every aspect of my life and trying something new. Sometimes, you just need a refresh.

With wine, the biggest question is where do I begin? Typically when I go to the wine store, I focus on what I already know. I love a good Malbec or Borolo, so I will ask to try a Malbec or Borolo that I have never tried before. That’s experimenting but not taking a real chance. So here is my wine challenge; taste something that you have never tasted before. I will try something new each week and will write about it here. Also, I will not pay more than $20 for a bottle. If I am truly stepping out, I don’t want it to be at the expense of my wine budget (yeah, I have one of those, lol). So here is where having that go to wine store or that sales person that you trust, in the wine section of your grocery store, is key.

Because I can be a stickler for timing, lol, I started a little early, which allowed me to refine the parameters of my challenge. I went to my wine store to pick up some wine for my July Supper Club and in picking up the wine to serve with my Coq Au Vin Blanc, the owner recommended that I grab a white wine to enjoy on Saturday afternoon, after coming inside from the sweltering heat. Low and behold, it was a wine produced from a grape that had not tried, or at least don’t remember ever trying, lol! The grape is Alvarinho and the cost of the bottle was $12.99, perfect!! I also decided not to do any research on the wine before I tasted it. Sometimes I feel like I lean to the research as opposed to really focusing on what I taste. So, it was a HOT Sunday afternoon and I just got home from running errands. I remembered that I had the wine and thought it might work well with the chicken I roasted earlier. I pulled it out of the wine fridge and got to tasting. The wine is Nortico Alvarinho, produced in the Minho region in the northern section of Portugal. The Minh River separates northern Portugal from Spain. I have to tell you, I was surprised, like really surprised. I did not have high expectations, which works for me. It is light and crisp but with some body. It reminded me of a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. The nose (smell) was amazing! It smelled like peaches with a light citrus glaze (Sho, are you reading??? Hint Hint!!). I plated the roasted chicken with lemons and baby potatoes and it paired perfectly!! What luck! I also found, after eating that this wine is perfect to cocktail, which means you do not have to eat to enjoy the wine. So when the bottle was empty (what had happened was…..) I was totally satisfied.

So for all of my winos (professional and beginners) get out there and taste something new and let me know what you are drinking by leaving a comment to this post. Challenges are always better when you take them with other people and I also hate eating bacon egg and cheese sandwiches alone, the morning after, LOL.

Cheers!