March 02, 2010

Viognier: California's heartbreak white grape

Jon Bonné, the wine editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote a nice piece yesterday in his blog, The Cellarist, on the topic of Viognier. He nailed the problems - of excessive ripeness and sweetness, mostly, and sometimes heat. I'd add one further issue that Jon didn't address: bizarre, added acidity, which can make the texture and especially the finish unpleasantly scoury.