shizfactor

Evidently, I like short shorts! It’s summer time, and like Adam Sandler’s “The Peeper”, I’m LOVIN’ IT!

For me, summer means BBQs, laying out on my sweet deck in my sweet chaise lounge, golfing, camping, and general good times with Mr. Zeb Walter - the love of my life. Know what goes good with all of those things?

White Wine!!

And I am on a mean white wine kick lately. Used to be ros-ay was my summer vino of choice - but these days, I’m sippin’ on viognier like you only read about (have you read about it yet? Perhaps not. Now you are!).

Now, for summer sippin’ you could probably find yourself something cheaper than Viognier. But why would you want to? Viognier delivers everything I want to drink in the summer - did somebody say delicious floral aromas? Paging white peach, pear and honeysuckle flavors … please report to my wine glass! Vibrant fruit flavors without excessive sweetness makes Viognier my “Summer Lovin’” summer love.

And you know who makes AMAZING viognier? Winemakers who produce great Syrah.

Take, for instance, Stark Wine. Stark Wine produces ultra-premium Syrah - full-bodied, tasty, knock-your-socks-off Syrah. And do you know what (in my opinion) makes their Cuvée Julian Syrah so crazy-good? Co-fermentation with Viognier. A puny 2% makes this Russian River Valley Syrah, well, something else. Imagine what 100% Viognier can do. Then drink it.

Did I just blow your mind?

Co-fermenting Viognier with Syrah is no new-fangled thing. They’ve been doing it in the Northern Rhone for years, as it can not only make Syrah prettier to look at (by intensifying the color of the wine), it also can create a silkier mouthfeel in typically chalky Syrah, and bring some floral fruitiness to otherwise gamey meat-tastic Syrah aromas. You know, for the vegetarians out there.

Co-fermentation business aside - Viognier is straight yummy in its own right. Really delicious, quality, American-made Viognier is out there - I’ll share a few more of my faves but hey, tell me in the comments if you’ve got a killer Viognier that I need to try. I’m all about the exploration!

Say hello to this new release from up-and-comer “Wines of Substance”. Visit their website sometime, its TRIPPY!

i’m excessively fond of the people at Twisted Oak - not only is their mascot a rubber chicken named Ruben… they back up all the quirkiness with crazy good wines. Their viognier does not disappoint. Oh, and the tasting notes for this wine can be sung to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme song. I am not kidding, check it:

Just sip one glass and you’ll hear a tale. A tale of a tasteful trip. That started with this Viognier, aboard this winery ship. The mate was a mighty winemaker, the assistant brave and sure. The Twisted Few set sail that day for a winemaking tour, a winemaking tour. The weather started getting rough, the vineyard almost lost. If not for the courage of the cellar crew the flavors would be lost, the flavors would be lost. Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah something something something isle, with coconuts, papayas too. Taste butterscotch, apricots. A touch of oak, the finish and Mary Ann, in this Twisted Oak Wine.

Okay, thats a little tricky. Especially if you’ve had a little viognier… like I have. Poor Zeb is shooting me the stank eye as I break out “A THREE HOUR TOOOOOOUR! A THREE HOUR TOOOOOUR!”

I’m going to go ahead and say it - VIOGNIER IS THE BOMB! I’ll continue the exploration of great summer wines, but for now, I’m stuck on viognier.

I have been procrastinating BIG TIME in getting the Shiz Factor blog up and running. Fact of the matter is, I didn’t know where to start. Should I tell you all funny stories so you feel a connection with me? Should I just go balls to the wall with some crazy opinions and let the chips fall where they may? Eh, nah… I’m just going to dive right in, and Wine Blogging Wednesday is the perfect time to start.

Wine Blogging Wednesday - which rolls around on the 2nd Wednesday of every month - has been going strong for over a year now. Each WBW, a wine blogger designates the month’s topic and the rest of the wine blogging world writes about their experience on that particular topic - resulting in some pretty cool, diverse perspectives on everything from German Riesling to “Wine for Breakfast” to today’s topic: wine and music.

This, my friends, is right up my alley. I’m responsible for writing all the wine pairings for the Wine+Music site (http://www.wineplusmusic.com), so I have had a little head start in this exploration. Also, as a former competitive pianist and current aspiring wine aficionado, I couldn’t have asked for a better topic with which to start my blog.

Reader: Enough preamble already! Would you talk about the wine?

Me: Keep your skirt up, geez!

I’m getting married this summer (don’t worry, this fact will prove to be relevant to the topic) - and my fiancee’s gloriously talented sister will be rocking the keyboard throughout the prelude and ceremony. As she shares my love of the vino, we chose to do a “wine and wedding music” night - my responsibility was keeping the glasses full, hers was to regale me with the sweet tune-age that will be setting the mood for our big day.

I brought over two bottles of wine: the Bonny Doon Vineyard 2007 “I, Aurora” and a 2007 “The Originals” Riesling from Magnificent Wine Company. I’ve had both on previous occasions - I thought this might be a good “control” for the “wine and music experience” experiment.

The “I, Aurora” is a Roussanne-based white blend, perfect for the summer months, full of zesty grapefruit flavors and a little bit of minerality that makes it quite refreshing. The piano at my future-sis’s house is newly tuned, and the first notes of Ginastera’s “Danza de la Moda Donoza” fill the living room, I take a few sips of the Aurora. Now - I already like this wine, but there could not be a better pairing than the Ginastera. The left hand plays, steady and mellow, in contrast with the piquant melody, creating harmonic tension that is right in balance with the tensions of flavors and structure in the “I Aurora.” I find that the more lively flavors in the I Aurora are standing out - more lime, a touch of bay leaf.

We move on to the Debussy Arabesque - one of my favorite pieces from my piano playin’ days - but I am disappointed. Not with the music - its still as gorgeous as ever. With the wine. When I taste the wine over the round tones and flowing melodies of the Arabesque, Aurora sort of goes soft on me. Everything that I loved that the Ginastera was bringing out in the wine is now gone, and the wine takes on a flabbiness, a dominant peach flavor that just can’t compare to my first few sips. The “Arabesque” doesn’t do Aurora justice.

I’m struck by the fact that a wine I have truly enjoyed in the past could be even BETTER when accompanied by melodies that share the same characteristics as the wine - and then within moments become lackluster. Who switched my glass? I’ve gotta try something different.

I don’t want to diss on Debussy - lets see how he does with the Originals Riesling.

This is another great summer wine - but where the Aurora brought the summer refreshment with zesty flavors, this Riesling brings the cool on with its effervescent body and “fruit salad upset” of flavors. Not overly sweet but full of peach flavors, a touch of green grapes (huh!), what’s that? Green banana? And as Arabesque hits the repeat for me, notes cascading, then busting out some church like chords - well, the Riesling actually opens up. I’m able to better pin point the flavors - no more fruit salad upset, where each flavor could easily be the other. Distinct peach. Distinct kiwi. Distinct pear.

So Debussy is not, in fact, death to wine. When the soft tones and sweet melodies are partnered with a sweet wine with soft effervescence, well, all is right with the world. And that Riesling is pretty easy drinking.

These were the most interesting phenomenon of the evening. As I previously mentioned, I write the wine and music pairing content for Wine+Music (http://www.wineplusmusic.com) and felt pretty confident going in to this experiment that each wine would be enhanced in different ways by the music, as has been my experience with my previous pairings. Such is not the case. Just like you probably wouldn’t pair a big juicy steak with a light, floral viognier, it is important to be on the lookout for dissonance between the structure and flavors in your sippage and the structure and melody of your tune-age.