Whilst at dinner at Susan's Mom's house in Pasadena, we tried:
1, DeepSea Viognier CentralCoast (www.RanchoArroyoGrande.com; www.DeepSeaWines.com; 15.9%) ConwayFamilyWines/SantaMaria 2008: Pale gold color; attractive strong pear/Viog/spicy/floral clean nose; tart fairly rich/Asian pear/Viog slight spicy/floral slightly hot flavor; med.long strong spicy/Asian pear/Viog clean/crisp slight earthy/minerally finish; a very attractive Viog that carries the alcohol well at a good price. $24.00
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2. Anaba Coriol SonomaVlly/Sonoma/Calif WhiteWine (69% Viognier; 15% Roussanne/10% Marsanne/6% GranacheBlanc; 14.1%) Sonoma 2007: Med.gold color; lovely bright appley/pear/Viog very fragrant some Mosel valve oil/floral spicy/rosemary/light toasty oak very interesting nose; tart appley/melony/pear/Viog light valve oil/floral spicy/rosemary light oak/minerally flavor; very long tart spicy/rosemary/pear/floral/Viog light oak/minerally finish; a lovely white Rhone blend w/ an interesting valve oil character underlying it. Very good value at $24.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. DeepSea: Susan & I had the DeepSea RedBlend at the Red/White & Blues Wine Bar in Pasadena. Very good wine list and terrific American bistro style food. The RedBlend, which spoke mostly of a Syrah/PetiteSyrah blend, was very/very good. Not a label I was familar with. So I saw this Viognier & decided to give it a shot. It reminded me a bit of the Ojai Viog more than anything, but w/o the (minimal) oak. Quite a nice Viognier it be.
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2. Anaba: This is a wnry I had not heard of before. I spied it on the shelf at HeritageWines in Pasadena and thought I'd take a flyer. The specialize in PinotNoir and Rhones. There's not a lot of Rhone whites up in Sonoma, so thought it would be worth trying. I was quite impressed by this; one of the better Rhone whites I've had this year. I'll have to try some of their other wines. Proprietor is JohnSweazey and winemaker is JenniferMarion; new names to me. They source grapes from RRV, SonomaCoast, and SonomaVlly/Carneros. They'll be showing their wines at FamilyWinemakers @ FtMason in late August, so worth taking a test drive there.
Tom