Nothing spectacular but..............

So tonight Abby Cadabby made me a very delicious dinner. It was crab meat, mushrooms, tomatoes and basil over some simple shell pasta. Little bits of onion and garlic with some heavy cream and S & P. Quite simple but very satisfying. I've realized that simple and relatively light allows for more flavors to shine in their respective ways. Sort of like the way good, lean, white wines highlight every different aspect of itself. Fruit, acidity, minerality, body and flat out electricity. That's probably why we had a white wine with dinner. You don't have to follow any rules when pairing in my book but eventually you'll find a few axioms. Big, red and tannic does not go with what we had.



2007 Slipstream Sauvignon Blanc
100% Sauvy from the Pemberton region of Western Australia. This fruit, and also the winemaker, come from the Pannell family; longtime Francophiles that happen to live in Australia. They grow some serious Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc in this quite obscure region. The first sniff makes you think Kiwi Sauvy and you're probably right considering it originates roughly along the same line of latitude that Marlborough lies but with further inspection it says something else. The something else is in the philosophy of the Pannells. There is a certain restraint and depth to this that speaks more to the Sancerre region of France. Don't get me wrong, it IS ripe but in the context of Southern Hemisphere Sauvy its minerality, maturity (maybe not the correct term but I like it) and expression are a bit more sophisticated than the Monkey Bay's of the world. That UP IN YOUR FACE aroma that is so unmistakably Kiwi is a more of a coaxing aroma that introduces flint and something savory. The gooseberry in your typical Kiwi rings more of a ripe jalapeno pepper. More minerals with a clean finish. Just because a finish lasts long doesn't mean it's good. There is just something wrong with the long finish of a New Zealand Sauvy that makes me think that all of those cultured yeasts that people boast about that 'enhance' many wines of the world, are actually some sort of HGH Oeno-drug. Like body builders up on stage with their shitty fake tan's, shaved anus' and over-exaggerated muscle. There's just something wrong. Long story short, there's something that says integrity in this wine and it wasn't bad with dinner.

-Ernest-