Is Viognier the David Paymer of the Wine World?

Friday, May 7, 2010

Last weekend I attended a great tasting at my friend and fellow Boston-area wine blogger Adam Japko's home.  The tasting started off with a flight of 6 Viogniers (pronounced vee-ohn-yay) from around the world which gave us all a great chance to see what this grape has to offer.

The wines weren't my favorite.  Although there was a decent amount of variety in the wines we tasted, there was something in the flavor profile of most that I just didn't like.  They were kind of sticky with florally aromas that in some cases reminded me of dishwashing detergent.

As I went to write-up my thoughts on the tasting, I thought about how some of my favorite wines use Viognier in a supporting role.  The ever-reliable Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier has been one of my favorite summer whites the past few vintages and the 90+ Cellars Shiraz-Viognier was the crowd favorite at the recent Wine Riot.

So I started thinking about consummate support actors and I thought of an actor from the movie The American President.  I could see his face as clear as day but when I consulted the IMDb page for the movie I realized Martin Sheen played the president's right hand man.  I thought I must be thinking of some other presidential movie so I started wandering around the web looking for consummate support actors.  It took me 2 days before I realized who I was thinking of!

Head on over to Corkd to read more on my thoughts on these Viogniers and be sure to check out the link to David Paymer's bio at the bottom of the page.  I hope you'll agree that you've seen him in tons of movies over the years, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on whether Viognier is ready to play a leading role.

Oh- I don't want you to think Adam served up lousy wines to us that night.  These were just a warm-up to some of the most incredible wines I've ever had the privilege of tasting.  Check back next week to hear more about the second flight.

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