Last week I ate an excellent, tasty and substantial lunch at the Taberna Etrusca Italian restaurant in the City of London with a good friend. We washed it down with a bottle of Rioja. Why Rioja in an Italian restaurant? You may well ask this; well the waiter recommended it and it was jolly good too.
Naturally, after a lot of talk about politics, religion and wine the subject turned to football. Spain, Italy and England have been eliminated. It is a good job that Spanish and Italian wines can hold up a good long term reputation that out classes the football. France is still going strong and has produced moments of Champagne football. As for England, well improvements are needed all round.
An Italian player was sent off for a head high tackle on a Uruguayan player and Suarez the "footballing genius", who had single-handedly defeated England, was banned after biting an Italian opponent in the same match. Suarez was lucky not to have been sent off too and of course the weakened Italian side were defeated. Perhaps the Uruguayan and Italian footballers should be sent on a wine course where they can learn how to act with decorum rather than violence.
After our meal we decided to decamp to Planet of the Grapes just down the road for a quick glass of wine before heading home.
The waitress spotted that we were after drinking something different from French, Italian and Spanish wine and suggested Evolution White which is produced by the Sokol Blosser Winery in the hills of Oregon. The wine staff in Planet of the Grapes are very knowledgeable about wine and they know what they are talking about. So naturally we discussed the grape varieties and the climate and of course the quality of the wine.
Evolution White is made from nine varieties of grapes: Pinot Gris, Müller-Thurgau, Riesling, Sémillon, Muscat Canelli, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Sylvaner.
Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Sémillon are used to make some of the world's finest sweet and dry white wines. Riesling and Gewürztraminer achieve their best expression in Alsace and Germany and late harvested grapes in both regions are used to make the finest sweet white wines. Sémillon is used to make the finest sweet white wines in the Bordeaux region of France - Sauternes.
Late harvested grapes dry out and wither on the vines to concentrate the sugars in the grapes. In the Bordeaux region Sémillon grapes are exposed to noble rot which also withers the grapes to produce grapes with high sugar levels.
The Evolution White wine was semi-sweet but any sweetness was well balanced by the acidity. The wine had a tangy, spicy and fruity taste which lingered long on the palate. It is wine which is of genuine high quality. The wine had its own distinct taste which is one of the hallmarks of a very good wine.
It is the perfect aperitif but it would also go well with desserts that have a hint of spice. It is best enjoyed with food but we enjoyed it on its own with conversation.
The waitress also gave us a taste of the Evolution Red which is made from Syrah (or Shiraz), Montepulciano and Sangiovese red wine grapes blended with a little of the Evolution white wine. This wine is spicy and fruity and of course will go well with food.
Sokol Blosser also make make wine from the Pinot Noir varietal and I suspect that this wine will be exceptionally good as the Pinot Noir grape grows well in the cool climate offered by the Dundee Hills of Oregon.
Sokol and Blosser have produced wines with a winning formula here and they deserve all the success they can get. These wines can compete favourably with many top European wines. I recommend them highly.
http://www.sokolblosser.com/about/history.html
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