Dry Wines for Dry January… Jan 13, 2024
What began as a “Dry January” lineup of low-alcohol and no-alcohol wines turned out to be something unexpectedly splendid for the customers at my shop this past Saturday.
Reader, do you expect me to stand (type) before you and proclaim that low-alcohol and no-alcohol wines turned out to be a wonderful surprise for the customers at my shop on Saturday? Get real!
Tasked with putting together a lineup of four “wines for dry January” that could complement people’s aspirations for the first month of the new year, our wine manager was blithely unaware that “dry January” is in fact a masochistic phenomenon for the first month of a new year wherein people commit not to consuming alcohol. Our dear wine manager though that “dry January” meant consuming only dry wines during the month of January. Perhaps what went through her mind was, “well, dry wines are typically lower in sugar than sweet wines, so people must want to cut back on sugar consumption during January.“ Whatever it may have been, her ignorance to a cultural New Years touchstone was our gain!
We ended up with four dry wines indeed, only one of which was a specifically low-alcohol wine that was made mandatory by the powers that be of my store. Thank goodness! Here are the wines served on Saturday, perfect for your “dry January” experience:
2021 Monget Vigneron Coteaux Du Giennois Blanc – Loire Valley, France | Paired with Asiago Stravecchio DOP (Mitica, Veneto, Italy)
2021 Laroche 'Le Petit' Chardonnay Lower Alcohol Wine – Languadoc, France | Paired with Humboldt Fog (Cypress Grove, Arcate, California)
Salt Wine Company 2021 The Shaker Red Blend – Columbia Valley, Washington, USA | Paired with Reypenaer (Reypenaer, The Netherlands)
Armida 'Tina's Block' Maple Vineyards Zinfandel – Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma, California, USA | Paired with Mountain Gorgonzola (Formaggi Ciresa, Lombardia, Italy)
First up, we sampled out a bottle called Monget Vigneron Coteaux Du Giennois Blanc, made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc from Giennois in France’s Loire Valley. At first whiff, it gave vibrant citrus, crisp, acidic pineapple, and a bit of grapefruit. There was a lot of acidity on the nose, but not in an overpowering way where before you even take a sip you practically prepare for your lips to pucker. Once I did take a sip, it was incredibly bright, light bodied, and again quite acidic with hints of floral lilies. The acidity though was tempered by a touch of minerality, almost like rounded stones sitting at the bottom of a river bed, washed by the purest water you ever did taste. Despite the acidity, it was genuinely quite pleasant and thankfully did not taste medicinally citric in any way; it was more of an incredibly bright, refreshing feel. Once I swallowed a sip, it left my palate wet and primed for a bright, yet not overpowering food pairing. We went with an aged Asiago Stravecchio DOP from Mitica. It turned out to be perfect in an unexpected way, because after a moment in my mouth, this Asiago blossomed into a nutty, buttery yet light and pleasant taste, which turned out to be incredibly adaptable. The acidity on the wine brought out a brighter element of the cheese you would have never known existed otherwise. It turned out that Asiago was such an adaptable cheese that you could pair plenty of flavor profiles and it would practically absorb those properties and bend to their will. If we had paired a sweet wine, the sweeter milk undertone of the cheese would have come to the forefront; if we had paired a dark fruit-forward red wine, the nutty and more robust characteristics may have had their moment. Overall, I was really impressed with how much of a chameleon the Asiago was, and I’m looking forward to what other wines and foods I can pair it with to see its different profiles come out!
Next, we tasted a 2021 Laroche 'Le Petit' Chardonnay Lower Alcohol Wine from a venerated winemaking region in southern France. Despite it being Dry January and all, most people balked at the thought a wine so high-intervention that it was formulated specifically to lesson the main component of wine that made it such a popular drink however many thousands of years ago. So few people cared to try this particular bottle that I didn’t even have to open a second, and there was still plenty left over by the end of the day. It was 100% Chardonnay, and my main takeaway was that while it did have the classic buttery and oaky notes we’re all used to, it was incredibly light and many people likened the taste to a glass of Chardonnay with ice cubed that had long since melted. It was quite toned down, and in my opinion was the perfect Chardonnay for people who hate Chardonnay but love flavored water. And I must say, for a low-alcohol wine, it still had 9.5% ABV! Nevertheless, I hold steady to the notion that any properly made cheese can enhance a wine, and I remained correct with our pairing of Humboldt Fog. The buttery acidity from the wine leaves the palate craving something lush and creamy. Humboldt Fog is the perfect answer, because as a young soft-ripened goat’s milk cheese, it is plenty lush and dense, plus the bright note from the goat’s milk finish is definitely in line with the craving. Plus, the signature vegetable ash layer in the middle of Humboldt Fog acts as a natural preservative during the cheesemaking process adds to the preservation of that silky, citrusy note on the finish of the cheese. Humboldt Fog doesn’t overpower the Chardonnay, nor vice versa. I was honestly surprised by how nice of a snacking combination it was, perfect for a summer day by the pool. Will this pairing impress your most discerning foodie friends? No, but it will absolutely bring joy to a typical day should you choose to give it a try.
And third, we sampled a 2021 blend from Salt Wine Company - The Shaker Red Blend. In addition to having a fabulous illustration on the label that gave seductress-on-Gatsby’s-sailboat-in-1920’s-Long-Island vibes, this is a fairly pricey bottle for being a domestic blend, and not even from Napa at that! This blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Syrah and 20% Merlot was priced on sale at $30. Grown and bottled in Columbia Valley, Washington State, I am surprised that it doesn’t feature any Pinot Noir in the mix, but I have a hunch that Pinot grapes from that region are genuinely too high-quality to blend at all. The nose is fruit-forward, with ripe red and black cherries anchoring it, plus some boysenberry and a hint of nutmeg. Once I tasted it, I could understand it commanding some sort of elevated price tag. It was very easily drinkable, but still quite sophisticated, fruity but still dry, heavy but not so heavy that I can’t drink it alone. I got a bit of orange rind as well, which I was proud to have had our wine managers agree with me on! A robust but not overpowering wine such as this deserves an equally intense cheese to pair. Due to the dryness of this particular wine, it leaves me craving something that coats my mouth and lingers seductively. We went with Reypenaer, a proper Gouda cheese from The Netherlands, aged one year. Reypenaer offers a nutty, slightly fruity taste with a just-south-of-aged texture that’s still got the creaminess of a young Gouda, but offers a light smattering of tyrosine crystals. It has such a nice fat content that it does stick to your gums quite a bit, almost like a toffee candy bar. It’s a really decadent contrast to the wine! Plus, it has a concentrated nutty and toffee-like flavor that it does match the wine’s intensity. I really like both the red blend and the Reypenaer individually, but together it’s a home run!
Finally, we had the chance to try a $40 Zinfandel - Armida 'Tina's Block' Maple Vineyards Zinfandel. For a Zin, this bottle was surprising! Hailing from Sonoma County, and being a blend of 80% Zin and 20% field blend of dark red grapes, you would probably expect a glass of this wine to punch you in the face a bit, as most Zinfandels tend to. However, this Zinfandel was only 14.2% ABV, which for this particular varietal is incredibly light. It’s not at all uncommon for a bottle of Zinfandel to be around 16% ABV, so that could very well be why it was so seemingly unassuming. On the nose, I got plenty of dark plum and black cherry, but more interestingly the wine manager picked out rose petal, anise, and vanilla. It truly did have a really lovely bouquet! The taste was quite the same as the nose, but with a bit of the cracked black pepper that’s characteristic in most Zinfandels (at least the West Coast ones!). It didn’t have a strong tannic presence at all, quite possibly owing to the other grapes present, and because being a 2019 bottle it has had some time to age. A classic pairing for a bold, big red is a blue cheese, and that’s exactly what we treated our customers to on Saturday. We sampled out Mountain Gorgonzola from Northern Italy, and it was actually the first time I tried this cheese! Gorgonzola is Italy’s most famous blue cheese, and there are two styles: Gorgonzola Dolce, which is quite mild and creamy, and Gorgonzola Picante or “Mountain” Gorgonzola. The latter is much more pungent, yet on the scale of all blues I’d say it’s just-left-of-center on the “melt my face off” spectrum. It is quite salty, earthy, but also quite fatty, too. Not too crumbly, more so thickly spreadable. It does have a lingering finish that I thought mostly as “dusty barnyard” and a bit of gaminess from the cheese itself, not even the mold veining within. I think it went very nicely with the wine due to both of the tastes’ lingering finishes, and would definitely recommend the pairing.
