Spring Whites: 3 White Wines You Should Uncork This Season
By Elin McCoy
With spring, a cook's fancy turns to light seasonal dishes and the wines that accompany them. Dust off your spring-fare cookbooks -- particularly those featuring seafood -- and consider these three white wine recommendations.
Wine #1: 2010 Mer Soleil Silver Unoaked Chardonnay
Price: $24
Region: Santa Lucia Highlands, Calif.
Grape: 100 percent Chardonnay
Alcohol: 13.5 percent
Serve with: rich fish like salmon or roasted pear salad with toasted walnut
For years California Chardonnays were bashed as buttery, oaky and over the top. But more and more of them fit a different profile. This lemony 2010 Mer Soleil Silver Chardonnay from California's Santa Lucia Highlands is pure and crisp, with weight and richness but without the telltale vanilla notes of new oak aging. It was fermented and aged in stainless steel and limestone-based cement tanks.
And this balanced white comes in an unusual ceramic bottle that keeps the wine as chilled during dinner as it is when you pour the first glass. Winemaker Charlie Wagner II says he was inspired by the ceramic bottles used for absinthe. For years Mer Soleil produced traditional barrel-fermented Chardonnays, which I haven't always liked. But in 2005, looking to add an unoaked version, Wagner thought aging them at least partly in the kind of cement vats used for reds in southern Europe might result in a more interesting white. Cement's natural insulation keeps the wine temperature steady during fermentation, yet allows aging wine to breathe the way it does in a barrel. He dubbed the resulting wine "Silver."
The distinctive ceramic bottle, an echo of those tanks, debuted in 2009. The 2010 Silver Chardonnay seems the best vintage yet. It has the kind of food-friendly acid backbone, lively fruit and mineral notes you get when grapes grown in a cool climate are picked at just the right time.
Related: For a gem of a red, consider Cabernet Franc.
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Wine #2: 2011 François Chidaine Touraine Blanc
Price: $11
Region: Loire Valley, France
Grape: 85 percent Sauvignon Blanc, 15 percent Chardonnay
Alcohol: 12 percent
Serve with: Scallops with lemon, sautéed sole, grilled oysters.
On a tasting tour in the Loire Valley, home to some of the best bargains in the wine world, I discovered the crisp, zippy and sappy 2011 François Chidaine Touraine Blanc, which tastes of cut grass and herbs. I sampled it at Chidaine's stand at the Salon de la Loire, the region's annual trade fair in Angers. The blend of mostly Sauvignon Blanc and a small percentage of Chardonnay is a textbook perfect savory white that shows surprising complexity and length for the price. And on a freezing snowy day, it made me think of -- and long for -- spring.
François Chidaine has worked with his father Yves since 1989, and gained a following for his delicious and complex wines from his family's Chenin Blanc vineyards in Montlouis and later for his Vouvray from the famous Clos Baudoin estate, which he began acquiring in 2002. He is committed to growing vines biodynamically (though he doesn't trumpet their certification on the label) and takes a non-interventionist approach to winemaking. This is his more basic but classically-styled white blend from the large umbrella region of Touraine in the central Loire, where Chidaine owns 15 acres. The year 2011 was a difficult vintage, but you'd never know it from this wine's lively, tangy flavors. Think of this wine as a good everyday white -- one you actually delight in sipping as you cook and, if there's any left, drink with scallops sautéed with lemon at the table.
Related: How about a Chardonnay with some finesse?
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Wine #3: 2011 Bodega Colomé Torrontés
Price: $15
Region: Salta, Argentina
Grape: 100 percent Torrontés
Serve with: scallops, sushi, ceviche or spicy Chinese dishes.
I always aim to drink more wines made from the less well-known grape varieties that offer value, new flavor profiles and high quality. So I'm trumpeting Torrontés, the fragrant native white from Argentina that's been vastly overshadowed by the country's wildly popular signature red, Malbec.
The light, delicate deliciously rose-petal-scented 2011 Bodega Colomé Torrontés, with its refreshing citrus, herb and spice notes and smooth yet lively texture, is a prime example. It's surprisingly food-friendly. I enjoyed it with tangy lime and chili-laced ceviche, a plate of sushi appetizers and a stir fry of scallops and baby bok choy.
What gives the Colomé Torrontés so much intensity of flavor and aroma is the micro-climate of the winery's vineyards. They are 5,500 to more than 10,000 feet above sea level in the arid, desert-like Calchaquí Valley of Salta province in Argentina's northwest corner. Because of the high altitude, the grapes are exposed to more of the sun's ultraviolet rays and that, plus the age of the vines, are responsible for the intensity. Some suggest that Torrontés could be as popular as Argentina's Malbec, an unusual and flavorful alternative to boring Pinot Grigios. Maybe. So far the best ones I've tasted, like this 2011 Colomé, are from Salta province. And this one is priced right.
Zester Daily contributor Elin McCoy is a wine and spirits columnist and author of "The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American Taste."
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