Think White

QUICK … name as many white wines as you can think of in the next two minutes.

I just joined American Wine Society (AWS) which keeps me in the loop of wine tastings here in Las Vegas with a bunch of really nice people. They also sent me a membership card which entitles me to discounts at … ah, I forget. But here’s something really fun — they have a magazine. I love reading about wine! When I took wine classes, I took the textbooks to bed with me. I highlighted and underlined and put little Post-it arrows on the pages. What fun! Man, who ever knew this stuff? How much of do I remember? Not much. But it was fun reading about it and I do use the books for reference constantly.

So last night I took my new AWS magazine to bed and started reading about hybrids in the 21st Century. The first unfamiliar name I came across was Solaris. It has “firm structure with cleansing acidity.” Hmmm… I crawled out of bed and grabbed 3 of my biggest, most complete wine books. I mean, if it isn’t in the first two, surely it’ll be in “Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia.” It wasn’t. Another white hybrid popped up: Saphira — pretty name, but it wasn’t in my wine books, either.  (Okay, in all fairness, these hybrids are destined for cold climates, so they have a very specific place in the universe. Just not my universe.) I checked the copyright date on my wine books. 2007-2010. The world of wine is like the world of computers. Six years might as well be the last century. Time to upgrade.

So, I drifted off to sleep listing all the white wines I know … Yeah, yeah, Chardonnay, then Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio, uh… oh, yeah Viognier! And, um… oh – Albarino (it has a tilde over the n and I don’t know how to do that), and … um, Riesling and Gewurztraminer and …

When I woke up, this was still running through my mind. There just aren’t that many white wines, are there? I remember some French whites from wine class: Sancere (I like saying the name) and Vouvray, Chablis (Chardonnay grape, Chablis region of France), Semillon, Muscat for dessert. Champagne, that’s white. Oh, there’s Italian Gavi which my friend Susan Robles and I would enjoy with hors d’oeuvres some Sunday evenings.

As I ponder this delicious subject, I can only conclude that this calls for a trip to Total Wines where I can meander through the white section. There’s got to be more than this. And I need to bring some home with me. We still have another three weeks of hot weather. Yeah, then summer’s over and it’s back to rich, full-bodied reds! Let’s hear it for the end of summer!