Get that butter out of my viognier!
I like that wine can be made in so many different ways. That means I can always find a wine to fit my meal or my mood. Some styles, however, just seem like a bad idea all around. I often struggle with oak in my white wines. I have come to recognize that a well balanced oaked chardonnay can be a nice addition to certain meals even if I don’t like to sip it on its own very often. I wish people would just keep their viognier away from oak, however.
I’m not a wine expert – I’ve never claimed to be. I’m just a person who drinks a fair bit of wine, most of it from Virginia. I do know that some French viogniers are oaked, but I don’t get the appeal. I just prefer the flavor profile with stainless steel fermentation/ageing. From time to time, however, we are intrigued by a bottle of oaked viognier. Usually these are the more subtly oaked offerings. That was sure not the case with the ’08 reserve viognier from Barrel Oak Winery we opened recently.
Looking back at our review from our last visit to the winery, we both liked this wine. I now have no idea why. The nose was mostly vanilla (thanks to all the oak) with a tiny hint of tropical fruit coming through. All I could taste was oak, however – vanilla with a hint of sawdust was my initial tasting note. As it warmed up, the vanilla gave way to butter – this was not an improvement. This is one of the few bottles of wine we’ve bought after a tasting and not finished. I’m not sure what we were thinking, but this was sure not the wine for us.
VA Wine Diva wants it explicitly known that this photo is courtesy of Grape Envy Guy. Because she hates fun.
The Get that butter out of my viognier! by Swirl, Sip, Snark, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
It was one of those nights where I was up against a deadline and working late, but my comely companion convinced me to have a glass of wine while I worked. This viognier was pretty disappointing. The flavors in general were pretty weak, to the point where I described this wine as watery. I tend to have a higher tolerance for oaked chardonnays than my partner, but I’m with her on oaked viogniers. If you can’t be super gentle and subtle with the oak in your viognier, just don’t do it. Butter-eating kitty agrees.
I think Viognier is such a malleable varietal that it’s container really plays a difference in how it tastes. Notaviva out in Loudon does the same grape from the same vines in the same year in oak and steel and the difference is dramatic.
I went to BOW recently, and didn’t remark on that wine enough to buy it. Did you try their Traminette? I thought it had some nice floral notes to it and my wife and I enjoyed it.
That has definitely happened to me before. I’ve bought a bottle of wine that I thought I really liked in a tasting room and then drank it later and was like, “what was I thinking? This tastes like crap”.
I’m no expert but my theory is that after tasting a lot of wine your palate reacts to something that is different and you think that is a good thing. But then by itself, it just tastes bad different.
…. or perhaps I was just tipsy at purchase
.
I haven’t had #BOW viognier since I left VA, but I remember liking it – and I don’t remember the oak. Perhaps another taste is in order.
That said, I do prefer a bit of butter in my viogniers, (but not overly oaky) leaving the crisper cousins for my friends.
I’ve had it happen, I think any of us who do a quantity of winery tastings run in to it eventually. The “regrettable purchase”.
Thanks for all the participation on this post Chris, Sarah, and Tammy. Clearly lots of people like viognier done in lots of different styles. I tend to favor steel over oak for my viognier, but I can appreciate some of the softness you can get with some aging in old oak. It’s also really true that wine styles can vary a lot from year to year (or even within one year as they’ve done with viognier at Delaplane Cellars). Wine is a perpetual learning experience with each tasting attended and each bottle opened at home – that’s most of the fun.
As for the BOW traminette – thanks for the recommendation, Chris. I don’t think we’ve had it (at least not recently). We’ll have to make plans to check it out.