We've been off our usual game lately. With the water damage to our condo, and the fact that a four year old in preschool means we're perpetually sick -- it's been hard to review our usual volume of wine. Hotels and dislocation are not conducive for wine blogging, and being sick kills your ability to smell and taste. In fact, we had a dinner scheduled a couple weeks ago and had to cancel because Denise and I were sick -- again.

Anyway, we finally had our friends Andrew and Madeleine over again. We've been meaning to try the recent releases from Duck Pond. We've recently reviewed Duck Pond's higher-end Pinot Noirs awhile back. This time we wanted to pair their Pinot Grigio with our killer fish tacos.

We got this insanely good recipe for salsa from our friends Patrick and Signe: equal parts avocado chucks (cubes if you can) and tomato (equal size cubes), some onion (cubes), cilantro, lime, salt, and a little tabasco to taste (not spicy). Then, we got some great looking halibut from Zupan's and fried it in half canola and coconut oil. Mixed that with Denise's black bean and yam and spinach goo, jack cheese, and corn tortillas -- and we had a feast.

Anyway, we started with this Pinot Gris. The first impression from Andrew was: "that's the lightest white I've ever seen". And it was almost completely translucent; it really looked like a bottle of water. We were dubious to start.

However, it didn't take long to realize that we all really enjoyed this wine. Andrew took an initial sip, and exclaimed: "wow, this is really refreshing!". Madeleine thought it was too light at first (like the first couple minutes), and then totally changed her mind, noting that it was "easy to drink". And in fact, Madeleine who normally has very small glasses of wine, had seconds and thirds of this one.

The thing with this wine was that it was so quaffable. It wasn't complex. It wasn't full-bodied. It was the opposite of that -- and in a really good way. Andrew and I agreed: it was like drinking a soft-drink. Of course, it wasn't sweet, but it was like you were drinking ... Andrew said it reminded him of drinking Fresa when he was a kid. And it was sort of like a flat soda (I don't mean this in a bad way; to the contrary).

The nose was mainly lemon and cilantro. Andrew wasn't getting cilantro (he thought we were smelling the salsa); instead he got liquorice. For me the taste was not just lemon, but a lemon and tangerine mix. It was really great chilled and with that salsa.

This wine was a hit -- and short lived. No, this isn't some complex snotty wine; instead, this is a perfect wine for a picnic on a hot summer day. And at $10 a bottle -- we'll be picking up some more of this one.


Cost:    

Rating:    8.0