I’ve been working my way through bottles of wine from various vineyards that grow their grapes organically or practice sustainability in a substantial way. My intention is to try something from a new vineyard each week, but when I bought last week’s Red Truck wines, the gentleman helping me at the wine store strongly suggested I try Bonterra Vineyard’s 2007 Viognier ($22.99).

 

I’ve already reviewed one wine from Bonterra, their Zinfandel, but I thought, why not. I was told that people were saying lots of great things about the Viognier, and I’m trying to not only try wines from new vineyards but also wine varietals that I’ve never tried before.

 

Wow, I liked this wine. Subtly fruity without screaming citrus or peachy. It was creamy – something I usually don’t notice in a wine. Quite enjoyable from the first sip. Often, when I try a new white wine that is fruity, my first thought is it will be great on the back deck in summer. But this is a white that I could tell would work well with food.

 

I first paired it with fried flounder with a sweet remoulade sauce, and it paired very nicely. That was last Saturday night. I had already bought my wines for Easter, but I had a hunch it would also work well with my brown sugar glazed ham. Right before we sat down to dinner on Sunday, I snuck into the kitchen and poured the last of the Viognier into my wine glass (I know, terribly rude of the hostess to serve herself something different than what she is serving her guests, but I was very sly about it. Plus, it was purely in the name of reserach). My hunch was right. It was nice with the ham.