Good Morning!

It has been a long, hot summer and I have guilty of spending too much time by the pool sipping white wine. (I know, tough life Tammi…I am not bragging or complaining, this summer was da BOMB). But I did some lounge chair tasting research and the study was SOOOOO scientific, I went to the wine store and bought 3 cases of white wines, all less than 10 dollars. Each wine had to be different and under $10 retail. I did not care where it was from or which grape varietal.

I found some really great whites and I found some whites with so much acidity that I had heartburn for days. In my search for great tastes, I did find some food pairings that I really enjoyed, that I would never have thought about during the project. I loved the fact that I found most of these wines with screwtops and many of them where from outside of the US.

I tried Rieslings from Germany, I had unoaked Chardonnay from California, I tried Viognier from Texas, Vinho Verde from Portugual and Pinot Grigio from Italy, just to name a few. I found a lot of wine to be kinda non-descript without being good or bad, but I found many I loved and I ended up buying more cases of white wine under $10, over the summer I have tried over 120 wines, bottle by bottle. Of course, I shared them with many wine lovers with kinda uneducated palates, my palate is not very educated yet either, but I did take notes and learned about my preferences and what I really did not like.

One of my favorite wines of the summer was from Argentina and the grape was Torrontes. My favorite producer is Finca el Origen Reserva. It is crisp, mineraly, 14% ABV, and it goes perfectly with a raft and a book. It is peachy, and stone fruitish, is fruitish a word? But it is so clean and pure and really a beautiful kiss of wine, I have fallen in love with this reasonably priced wine.

I am not sure if I am as tickled about loving this wine for it’s price or for the fact many of the expensive wines I have tried over the summer really were lame. It is fun to love this wine, much like admitting sometimes I prefer a grilled hot dog over some really high end 5 course meal.

Anyway, Summer is mostly over and I will soon to head to California for the harvest and I am looking forward to the cooler weather and all the fun to be had during the fall. Go find Torrontes, I love it with triscuits and sliced tomatoes, with a little olive oil drizzled over it, sound weird, it is the perfect summer pairing for me!

If you have a perfect summer pairing, please share it with me!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi