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Wine Recommendation
Pine Ridge Winery
2005 Chenin Blanc - Viognier(Clarksburg)
The folks at Pine Ridge say they were the first to combine this unusual blend of grapes originating in the Loire (Chenin Blanc) and the Northern Rhône (Viognier). Except here, the grapes come from the upper San Joaquin Valley. Specifically, the fruit here is sourced from the Wilson Vineyard, in the Sacramento delta town of Clarksburg, which is just due south of the California capital.
Pine Ridge has blended the Chenin, which predominates, to come up with a bone dry wine with lime zest aromas. The wine is well balanced with delicious lemon-lime flavors and cleansing acidity to wash away the fat from say, a thin-crusted pizza topped with slivers of potato and pesto at a Sardinian restaurant in San Francisco.
The wine is made more European in style by the fact that the alcohol is a low (by California standards) 12.5 percent. There was no barrel fermentation and more than 14,000 cases were produced. I like the price, too.
Reviewed February 15, 2007 by Alan Goldfarb.
Other reviewed wines from Pine Ridge Winery
The Wine
Winery: Pine Ridge Winery |
The Reviewer
Alan Goldfarb
Alan Goldfarb has been writing about and reviewing wine for 17 years. His reviews have been published in the St. Helena Star, San Jose Mercury, San Francisco Examiner, Decanter, and Wine Enthusiast, among others. Not once has he used a point system, star system, or an iconic symbol to quantify a wine. What counts in Mr. Goldfarb’s criteria when judging a wine is: how it tastes in the glass; is it well-constructed; its food compatibility; and presence of redeeming regional attributes. |