and for dessert...

It came to my attention that Mr. Blood and Sand and Mr. Gin had a bit of a Sauternes party last night, which made me insanely jealous (more for the steak and company than the wine, since we have plenty of it here). It also reminded me that I missed an excellent blogging opportunity last week.

Sauternes is a sweet white dessert wine from the Graves area of Bordeaux, and one of the few white wines I truly enjoy.* In my humble opinion, it is the ne plus ultra of dessert wines. Part of my love for it comes from the peculiarities of its creation. The short version is as follows: the region lies at the intersection of the Garonne River and its tributary, the Ciron. One is cold and one is warm, and when they cross you get a lovely mist which encourages the growth of rot that sucks all the water out of the grapes. These extra sweet grapes then make extra sweet wine. These grapes are extra delicate and need to be picked by hand. Plus, because of the dual combination of weather dependency and grapes with less water content, you don't get Sauternes every year. (You can get all the science-y details here.) They are mind-blowingly good with Roquefort (I like the sucré/salé combo). A nice foie gras is the classic companion.

So, last week, a French friend stopped by for drinks, and being a polite Frenchwoman, brought a bottle to share. This time it happened to be a lovely, sweet white Bordeaux. It was decidedly less sweet than the Sauternes I've had in the past, and lacked the intense dehydrated urine color and syrupy mouth feel. I'm a big fan of the turning it up to 11 effect Sauternes has on your tongue, and this was the perfect toned-down version of that: refreshing and sweet, perfect to share with friends over conversation. And, because the sugar content is not so intense, you can enjoy a second glass without disastrous effects the next day.

I stupidly forgot to write the name down or take a picture of the bottle (although, based on descriptions, I have a feeling it may have from from the Premières Côtes de Bordeaux appellation), but it's encouraged me to explore different Vins d'Or (or as the have rebranded themselves "Sweet Bordeaux") while I'm here.

Bisous,

Plenty

*I'm not a white wine fan due to the use of a really bad chardonnay as the weekly communion wine at my childhood church. I know you're asking yourself "white wine? for the blood of christ?" I don't understand either. But it's put me off anything oaky.