A Good Introduction to Whites

As mentioned in a previous post, we recently picked up two bottles of wine while shopping at Target. While we weren’t that jazzed about Folie à Deux’s red version of Ménage à Trois, the California White Table Wine version turned out to be OK.

The first thing we noticed about the white 2005 Folie à Deux Ménage à Trois was its color. It was a very pretty, clear light yellow. It looked a lot like pear juice. The smell was very pleasant, too. It smelled sweet, like apricots and orange blossoms. Before looking at the label, we thought the wine smelled like a Viognier or a Sauvignon Blanc. Actually, the three grapes that comprise this ménage à trois are Chardonnay, Moscato, and Chenin Blanc. The Moscato and Chenin Blanc grapes explain the sweet smell.

Moscato is a grape typically used in light, sweet dessert wines. Moscatos are often just a hint fizzy and frighteningly easy to drink. We’ll review one of our favorite Moscatos as it gets closer to summer. Chenin Blanc wines are also a bit on the sweeter side, although they are not dessert wines. The first wine one of your Wine Nuts started drinking way back when was a Callaway Chenin Blanc. It was just sweet enough to be drinkable for a Wine Nut in the Making. And this white Ménage à Trois shares that characteristic.

Overall, we would describe the taste of this wine as a bit watery, bland, and lacking pizazz. It’s not offensive; there’s just not a lot to it. On the plus side, it is not harsh or acidic or alcohol-y. For this reason, we think this wine would be great for someone who is new to wine. It’s just sweet and easy enough to be enjoyable if most wines make you pucker your lips and say, “Yick.”

We think this wine is a little steep at $10. For $5-$7, we would keep it on hand for guests who aren’t Wine Nuts but want to join in the fun. Like its red brother, this Ménage à Trois can be found at Target and World Market. And it’s a better buy than the red.

What a surprise!!

We recently visited Albuquerque, New Mexico. While driving around, we spotted a sign pointing to a winery. “Wineries? In New Mexico??” Surprised and skeptical, we followed the signs to Casa Rondeña Winery. We like wine adventures and figured this would be a good amusement. An hour later, we walked out stunned, making plans for a future wine tour of New Mexico, and the proud owners of a mixed case of four wines.

Karen, the really nice lady in the tasting room, poured us tastes of nine wines (still adjusting to the 5,000 foot elevation, we wisely opted to share our tastes). There wasn’t a dog in the bunch. Karen told us that about 95% of the grapes used in Casa Rondeña wines come from New Mexico. The winery grows its own Riesling and Gewürztraminer grapes. It buys most of the remaining grapes from growers in southern New Mexico. The lower elevations and higher temps in the southern part of the state allow a variety of red grapes to grow, including Tempranillo, a tasty Spanish grape typically used for blending. It is slowly becoming more popular in the United States.

The wines we came home with were:

• 2004 Sangiovese, a red that was very light and bright and fruity ($15).



• 2005 Clarion, a red wine which was a blend of Syrah, Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. It was unlike anything we’ve tried before, although it did have the earthiness and spice of Tempranillo ($28).



• 2004 Animante Port made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that was a ruby port of sweet cherries and chocolate ($35).



• 2006 Viognier ($20), our absolute favorite of the bunch. It was probably the best Viognier we have ever tasted. Viogniers - a white wine - typically smell fruity and sweet and then have a contrasting sharp, citric flavor. The Casa Rondeña Viognier’s nose and taste were more harmonious. It had an apricot and pineapple nose with a sweeter, crisp, fruity, yet still lightly acidic taste to complement it.

Casa Rondeña Winery has only been around since 1995 and produces just 6,000 cases of wine per year. For comparison, in 2006, Robert Mondavi produced approximately 9 million cases. In other words, Casa Rondeña is pretty small potatoes…or grapes. And they just started selling wines outside of Albuquerque, branching out all the way to Santa Fe and Taos. Which is to say, they aren’t much into distribution. The good news, though, is that they will ship. At first glance, their prices seemed high. After tasting their wines, we think we got a bargain and plan to bookmark their website for future purchases. New Mexico hints at having fabulous wines and enough wineries to consider a wine tour – who knew? (See New Mexico Wine Country for more info.)