Wine Whine

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Is it possible to drink a white too cold?

Tonight I opened a bottle of 2005 Bremerton - Willson Family Verdelho Sauvignon Blanc. (Please excuse my crappy photo....)

The Bremerton Winery was established in 1998 and is situated in the Langhorne Creek area of South Aus. This is the first of their wines I have received. (I think this is another Australian Wine Selectors wine from the summer selection.)

The wine is clean and refreshing, lots of citrus and possibly a hint of pineapple (a little too tart for my liking at first) but I noted as the wine 'warmed', the tartness softened a little bit, which I preferred somewhat. The fruit lingers nicely.

Would I buy this wine again...yes, possibly, a nice change from the usual straight Sauvignon Blanc variety. The alcohol is stated as 13% on the label and it contins sulphites so if you're sensitive to those little devils then you'll need to be aware of that.

I must admit I'm quite a fan of Verdelho and have not been exposed to many white blends and I generally only drink whites in summer - how strange that I chose a white this evening.

I am becoming quite fond of these cool climate wines. More research is required by me however in what that actually means for the wine growing and manufacturing processes and of course the end result !

posted by Nia at 7:24 pm

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4 Comments:

At 9:26 pm, Mal

Tannia

Yeah! You can drink them too cold. There was a good comment about this some time(a few months) ago on the Oz Wine Show podcast site which went into proper temperatures for drinking wine and the aromatics to wrok properly.

I just looked for the comments but ut appears some were lost when they reorganised the look of their site. Either that or I have the wrong site.
At 10:14 pm, Anonymous

Chilling kills aromatics and heightens acidty, lowers alchol sensitivity etc. Good with a crap white because you can chill it to death and not taste it.
I don't think Langhorne is classed as cool climate. Verdelho tends to do well in warm climates.

GW
At 10:32 pm, Nia

Thanks Mal and GW....

Bugger - you see what happens when you trust what you find on the web....so much out there to confuse us..ok perhaps it only confuses me!!

The Jacobs creek website refers to the Langhorne region as being

"regarded as one of the best-kept secrets in Australian Viticulture. The cooling breezes of the Great Southern Ocean sweeping over Lake Alexandrina help make Langhorne Creek a focus for fine cool climate wines."

...and from the Langhorne Creek Wine Industry Council

"Langhorne Creek is traditionally a red wine grape region best known for its full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. With a surprisingly cool climate, the region also produces exceptionally flavoured white and fortified wines."

So many things to trip up young *cough* players....
At 11:24 am, Tricia17

Oh, yeah, you can definitely drink a white too cold. Pull it out of the fridge about 15 minutes before you drink it. Or don't. The previous poster's right: Poor wine benefits from a good chill. :)