Anyone remember that old IHOP chestnut? I think the moniker accurately describes two of the finds I picked up at this year’s Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.
Not only were the wines rooty, tooty, fresh and fruity, the prices were right too – you can buy these wines and have your (pan)cake too!
Interested Vancouverites can try to pick these up while there may still be a small amount leftover from the fest:
Finca El Portillo Sauvignon Blanc 2009
I met winemaker Gustavo Bauzá at Playhouse, who seemed to be very proud to pour this wine for me, almost more so than his signature Mendoza Malbecs and reserve Malbecs. With that much good faith, I had to take home a bottle of this for myself.
This refreshing white offers a fruit salad nose with dry, crisp flavours of green Thompson grapes, citrus and fresh, sweet wheatgrass on the palate. Clean, stretched out acidity from start to finish makes this a perfect wine for summer food. Opened on Mother’s Day (May 9). $15
I did end up having spot prawns with this wine, as I was hoping to, which worked out beautifully, as did the other dishes I made for Mom: Curried fresh tomato gazpacho soup with cucumber and Saltspring Island mussels cooked in the same wine. Yum!
El Portillo also makes a sparkling wine in the traditional method with Champagne varietals Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which I’m very curious to try.
Domaine des Cèdres Rosé de Loire 2008
This wine is from a little biodynamic winery in the Loire Valley with about 19 hectares of vineyards, up from an original 6 ha when it was founded in 1936. Domaines des Cèdres produces a Vin de Pays red, Vin de Pays rosé, an AOC Côtes du Rhône red and an AOC Côtes du Rhône Villages red.
I opened this last week to celebrate a recent achievement, and was rewarded with delicate flower petal aromas, fresh strawberries and sweet rhubarb coming off the nose. On the palate, this medium-bodied salmon-coloured beauty was dry – more dry than one would expect from the juicy nose – although the round fruity flavours remained right into the finish. $18
Ed.: See? What’d I tell you about the rooty part? Well, rhubarb… Stalk, root; whatever.
All I had for food that night, sadly, was a box of Vietnamese takeout, because I had no time to cook. But the bun thit nuong’s grilled pork with fresh raw vegetables on warm vermicelli in a sweet/sour/salty fish sauce (nam pla) formed an inspired East-West pairing with this Loire rosé.
Links
Finca El Portillo www.bodegasalentein.com
Domaines des Cèdres www.domainedescedres.fr