Viognier at Volcano Vineyards

Viognier Flight Thursday March 29: five viogniers, tasty appetizers, only $10

Viognier: our favorite Rhone white! Both Chardonnay and Viognier share tropical fruit flavors and a creamy mouth-feel. Even with little or no wood aging, Viognier can be as full-bodied as an oaky Chardonnay, but has much more distinctive fruit character. It also has a typically deep golden color, and usually shows rich and intense flavors of Orange blossom, violet, honey aromas, apricot, peach, mango papaya, kiwi flavors, anise, mint, hay, and tobacco. It’s a fun white you can pair with spicy or stongly-flavored foods: Thai, Mexican, Chinese cuisine, and our favorite match - blue cheese. Check out the five featured wines in our flight:

Abacela Winery Viognier 2005, Southern Oregon: Grapes are from both the Umpqua and the Applegate Valleys in southern Oregon. Whole cluster processing, fermentation in 100% stainless steel. These guys are detail oriented and methodical. Just check out Abacela’s website for the “weather” page – they monitor EVERYTHING – heat index, wind, sunrise, sunset, barometric pressure… which reminds me, did you know that 25% of all meteorologists in the US earned their bachelor degrees at Penn State? Amazing. But, I digress… Ah, let’s see, rose petal, honeysuckle and peach aromatics, mango and banana(!!!) finished off with a hint of wood. I picked up hints of coconut and pineapple on the nose (not quite a piña colada, but pleasantly reminiscent of it) with a light mouth-feel and a crisp finish.

Tertulia Cellars: 2005 Viognier - Columbia Valley, Washington: The name of this new Walla Walla winery means “a social gathering of friends.” The 2005 viognier is their first white release. It contains 22% rousanne, another Rhone varietal valued for its crisp acidity. The grapes were whole-cluster pressed - that is a gentler process that extracts flavor from the fruit of the grape, not the stems, seeds and skins as happens with traditional crushing. Fermentation occurred in 74% stainless steel and 26% neutral French oak, partial malolactic fermentation (the process that turns bitter malic acid into the softer lactic acid). Tertulia’s tasting notes indicate we should experience floral aromas, with pineapple, peach and apricot flavors, a smooth mouth-feel and balanced acidity. I got green apple and honey on the nose, tropical up-front fruit, a rich mouth-feel (from the ML, I would assume), melon, kiwi and pineapple flavors and a clean finish.

Roxyann Winery: 2005 Viognier - Rogue Valley, Oregon: Roxyann’s Winemaker, Gus Janeway, is our consulting winemaker. His guidance has been invaluable! Gus is generally considered to be a master of red wines, so let’s see how he does with a white. Roxyann’s tasting notes suggest a floral nose with pineapple, guava, and spiced lemon zest throughout. The promise is of a rich and luscious warm weather viognier. It has less of a traditional viognier nose: no floral aromas, but I got hints of honey and pink grapefruit, but I was definitely reminded of chardonnay. Crisp up front with a smooth finish, green apple and key lime flavors. A good option for a weightier white for the ABC-ers.

Cougar Crest Winery: 2005 Viognier – Walla Walla, Washington: Estate grown, 100% viognier Cougar Crest tells us to look for floral and citrus aromas on the nose, followed by pear, pineapple, grapefruit and melon with a honey finish. The Wine Spectator gave this an 88, stating that it feels - and I am not making this up - “raw, offering ear and green peach aromas.” I have no idea what an ear aroma might be, and I couldn’t detect anything I would call “ear aroma” so... Also very chardonnay-like in weight and mouth-feel.

Valley View Winery: 2005 Viognier – Southern Oregon: This winery was established in 1972, and they are known as “the Rogue Valley’s premiere winery.” Their Anna Maria wines are considered their “reserve” line – they only produce these wines when the vintage merits. This Viognier has a heavenly nose - flowers, tropical fruit, melon, with nicely balanced acidity. ‘The Oregonian’ declared, "It will be hard to find a better Viognier anywhere." I love it; I think its flavor profile is the most viognier-ish of the flight. Scott feels it is a bit thin. What do YOU think?

Join us next Thursday!