Lush Life: Bridlewood Viognier 2003

by Deidre Woollard, Posted Aug 9th 2005 @ 9:07PM

I paid far too much for this out at a restaurant the other night but that's no reflection on the wine. In general when faced with the wine list and heading for the white side I tend to look for a viognier because it's a touch different than your run-of-the-mill chardonnay and it's agreeable with most food. Most viogniers have a nice fruity/floral nose and a flavor that is less oaky than a chard and less sweet than a gewurztraminer or a riesling. Also, I find myself being an advocate for this grape just because it's not as widely known in the U.S. I'm not alone in my viognier love, there is a whole website, Enjoying Viognier, devoted to the cause.

We paired this with fish and it did quite well. Its lightly honeyed taste made it a nice apertif and it lingered well into dessert. Bridlewood is a Santa Barbara winery that makes a variety of midrange ($15-$35 retail) wines that are not earth-shatteringly memorable but are very agreeable and often appeal to a wide variety of palates. This one retails for around $16 and is definitely a match with summer's lighter foods.

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Filed Under: Lush Life, Drink Recipes
Tags: bridlewood+winery, BridlewoodWinery, santa+barbara, SantaBarbara, viognier, west coast, white+wine, WhiteWine, wine