Kim and Tonic

Region: Casablanca Valley, Chile
Grapes involved: Sauvignon Blanc
Cost: $13.99
Food pairings: This was bangup awesome with seafood and with the veggie tapas we were having. Jen has all the foodie details here. I understand if you hate us by the time you’re done reading it all. Specifically, you need to get your hands on the zucchini fritters and the white bean spread/baguette with this wine – so, so, so good. *drool*

That said, this is a not-great pic with an even less-great attempt at sangria in the background. So, um, I won’t share the sangria recipe with you because it was lackluster at best. This wine, however, is top notch, even if we were drinking out of mason jars.*

So in the great world of Sauvignon Blancs, I’m used to New Zealand’s more than anywhere elses. The reason for this lies in the sort of dilletante-ism that rules my life when I’m not being particularly careful or methodical about learning – i.e., I read in a magazine article at some point in college that the best Sauvignon Blancs come from New Zealand, and so I have generally ever since grabbed NZ Sauv Blanc whenever that was the sort of wine I was going for (without, you know, doing any of the research or anything necessary to tell me whether or not that one line in a magazine might actually be worth listening to). The upshot here is that due to that one randomly-grabbed tidbit of information, this was the first non-New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc I’ve had in years.

NZ Sauvignon Blancs (<—— I am getting sick of typing that, so I assume you’re sick of reading it,) are  bright and citrusy and cheerful. This was… not that. It is still a bright and cheerful wine, and it still has some decidedly citrusy characteristics, but it’s different.

The nose is predominantly grassy and herbal, with a hint of something that I swear my nose read as rosemary. And there’s something citrusy as well, but it’s lemongrass more than lemon – citrus-like, but planty rather than juicy.

The flavor is fantastic: it’s lemon rind, herbs, grass, hay, and something quite mineral-y. After a few more sips, it gets even more strongly grassy and develops a topnote of tangerine out of nowhere, which I really enjoyed.

This wine has a nice acidity and a pure, clean flavor (this is largely a combo of the citrus and the mineral: mineral always reads “clean” to me).

Overall, it’s flipping fantastic. It lacks some of the citrusy brightness of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, but makes up for it in the grassy, hay-like mineral area. This wine is radically different than any white I’ve had before. I’d really like to have it again, and to try some other SBs from South America. Good stuff.

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*wine glasses were available – the mason jar thing was my fault. What can I say – I had just chopped off most of my hair and was feeling sorta hipster. And wine glasses are so establishment, y’all.

And finally: the mussels recipe is in the next post. Enjoy!

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