2020 Bien Nacido Estate Viognier Viognier - Santa Maria Valley, USA, California, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria Valley, Wine Review

Honestly, I love Viognier from the Rhone Valley, but less so the full throttle Viogniers from California (usually with high alcohol). Despite that disclaimer, I really enjoyed this. Unique and different as it is. Golden in color with green swirls. The nose has green apples, slight floral notes and just a hint of peach. Nice acidity. Oily texture. Light to medium tannins. On the palate, the apples are present with a light minerality. Long finish. This drinks easy on its own and will work with some lighter foods. Drink over the next five to seven years.

Grade:

A-

Score:

Vintage:

2020

Current Price:

$35.00USD

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America's Best Rhone Style White Wines: 11th Annual Rhone Rangers Tasting Reviewed

The Rhone Report: About Rhone and Rhone-Style Wines and Winemakers is part of an ongoing series. Like many lovers of Rhone style wines from America, we have just returned from the 2008 edition of the annual Rhone Rangers tasting event at Fort Mason in San Francisco (March 18). This was the 11th year that the Rhone Rangers , a group of about 200 American producers of wines using 22 varietals traditional to France’s Rhone Valley, have shown off their wines at this public tasting event. This year, about 138 wineries presented approximately 520 wines. During the tasting, we enthusiastically tasted as many wines as we could within the 5 hours (3 public and 2 trade/media) the event was open. We tasted 30 white wines first, and then we tasted 50 reds. We skipped the rosés, not because we don’t love them, but because we didn’t have time. Kudos to Rhone Rangers for providing eco-friendly paper spit cups instead of the plastic cups so common at other tastings. We divided our attention between wines and producers we have known previously, producers new to us, and specific bottlings we didn’t already know. While we found many wines to admire, we are sure we missed other gems.

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2014 Pott Wine Viognier 20m3 Stagecoach Vineyard Pritchard Hill, USA, California, Napa, Wine Review

Vintage:

2014

Score:

Grade:

A-

This is an intriguing Viognier. Much of California Viognier comes off as alcoholic or hot and certainly lacks the floral lightness of many of the Rhone counterparts. This bottle strikes a middle round which is quite nice. Light golden in color. The nose has lots of grapefruit with a bit of a floral quality (white flowers?). Medium bodied. On the palate, this has a grapefruit juice quality but a bit livelier that say a Sauvignon Blanc. Not really showing any age at the moment, still, I would drink this sooner than later to enjoy the freshness. It will go well with all but the heavies

2016 Sobon Estate Viognier, USA, California, Amador County, Wine Review

Vintage:

2016

Score:

Grade:

B-

Current Price:

$20.00USD

Pale gold in color. The nose has some meyer lemon's but is also very dusty and slightly hot. On the palate, this has a nice oily texture. A bit of a green streak but also some lemon notes. It has a distracting bitter quality that is very persistent. A shorter finish. Screw capped. The description makes this sound worse that it was, but this was a disappointing experience.

2014 Andremily Syrah No. 3, USA, California, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Wine Review

Vintage:

2014

Score:

Grade:

A+

Current Price:

$165.00USD

Nice to revisit this wine. Tasted (note posted elsewhere on this site), it was quite tight. While still quite young, this wine has really made a lot of progress. Still not at its peak, but providing a lot of pleasure right now. It is a blend of 89% Syrah, 8% Mourvèdre and 3% Viognier. inky purple in color. The nose is great with black raspberries, smoked meat, white pepper and floral notes. On the palate, this has firm tannins. Black raspberry fruit over scorched earth and also some pepper. Great texture. Long finish. This will go well with big meat dishes but also roasted veggie

2015 Donelan Vénus, USA, California, Sonoma, Wine Review

Vintage:

2015

Score:

Grade:

This is a white Rhone blend of grapes; Rousanne and Viognier. Golden in color. This was served at red wine temperature which for me was ideal. It really cut down on the acidity and brought out the aromatics. YMMV. The nose is really nice with candle wax, slight peach, floral notes and minerals. On the palate, this is dry and full bodied. A bit of honey nevertheless along with peach and vanilla. Lovely texture. Good finish. This worked quite well with food. There is a nice depth to this. It drinks very "red" like.

2020 Bien Nacido Estate Viognier Viognier - Santa Maria Valley, USA, California, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria Valley, Wine Review

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