The Naked Winemaker: The wines of spring

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Every year, when the weather does what it’s doing now –
beautiful warm clear days, cool bug-less nights, the pull to be outside with
friends and family – my mind has already arrived at the next excuse to open a
bottle of wine.  As a certified
Cork Dork I have two criteria.  One
is to taste things I have not tasted before. The other is to open things I have
not been thinking about over winter (with its heavy, sturdy, “comfort” foods
and wines).

In the Not Tasted Recently Department, it’s embarrassing to
admit that the first thing I open is my own Spring Wine from last fall’s
vintage.  It’s not spring for me
until that wine is out and we’re doing crisp fresh asparagus with a light
vinaigrette.  I love Spring Wine’s
bright fruit and fresh character that somehow makes me see green, think green,
feel green, and want to act like a daffodil.  I mean just hang out and look around at the wonderful
changes taking place in the garden, the tree tips, the lawn.

A few nights ago, Lee and I shared a bottle of Selbach 2008
Riesling from Bernkasteler in the Mosel Valley, Germany.  We took it with us to The Gables
Restaurant.  Jack was debuting his
new spring menu and I had a near religious experience having this wine with his
duck salad.  For the bone-dry wine
drinker it might be a little sweet, but it’s lively acidity, feint mineral
taste and delicacy of low alcohol sent me into a tail-spin and I felt like a
daffodil all over again.

What’s in your picnic basket?

So what else is on my list for this upcoming picnic and
party season?  Mostly light fresh
crisp whites!  A few suggestions:

·     
German Rieslings like the Selbach I just
mentioned

·     
Those wonderful slightly sweet low alcohol
Muscatos from Northern Italy

·     
New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs (Lee’s favorite)

·     
French Chablis (these are the lightest
Chardonnays from Burgundy)

·     
Loire Valley whites (like Muscadet)

·     
Chenin Blanc from just about anywhere it’s made
(We had a very good one from Baja California in Mexico this winter.)

Even though whites are at the top of the spring list, some
of us are going to drink reds anyway! 
So time to transition and move the big heart-warming tannic “take me to
your steak” reds back to the cellar, in favor of lighter reds like Pinot Noir,
Cotes du Rhone and even some of the less expensive delicious Garnacha’s
(Grenache) from Spain.  These are
fruitier dry reds and they work so nicely with lighter meats ranging from lamb
to fresh pork to roast chicken. 
I’m happy using these selections through most of the summer…or at least
right up until we crank up the grill and baste on Uncle Ray’s BBQ sauce. Which
we will discuss at a later date.

One final thought on spring-ish wines: don’t wait till
summer to look for a nice clean dry Rosé
to stock your larder (read that cry rosé, not the sweet pink blush wines)
.  Start now so you know what to take with
you to the shore, on the boat, or just out to the back patio.  What intrigues me so much about
delicious dry rosés (besides
the fact that they are so perfect with cheese, sausage, olives and crusty
French bread) is that they come out of the refrigerator cool and crisp like a
white…and then warm up on the table to a light red.  So everybody’s happy!

The classic dry rosés
are from southern France (Provence) and Portugal, but today you can find them
just about anywhere.  I’ve had some
very nice ones from California and Chili, and we even make them here in
Pennsylvania.

 

Have a great
spring filled with delicious wines and foods,

Eric

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This Post Has One Comment

  1. brandywinebard

    I had 2 glasses of the Chadds Ford (White) Spring Wine at the April 1st reception given by the Chadds Ford Business Association.

    It was perfectly delightful- hence my second glass.

    I had never tried a Spring Wine thinking it would be somehow unfinished or too young. That was a big mistake which I have now corrected.

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