Clayhouse Estate Rhone White Blend
Speed to first woot: 10m 33.550s
First sucker: MarkDaSpark
Last wooter to woot: MarkDaSpark
Last purchase: 2 minutes ago
If so, I have a question unrelated to this wine… A few years ago I purchased a case of late harvest Zinfandel from you…375 ml bottles…fantastic dessert wine. I see you no longer have it on your website. Is there any chance you have a few library bottles rolling around? I’d love to buy another case or two.
Bahwm and I had a bottle of this with dinner last night. The initial impression of the nose was grass with some herbal notes, maybe cilantro, but not the kind of grassiness I don’t like in Sauvignon Blanc. Then I got a distinct floral character, reminding me this is 30% Viognier.
Entry is smooth, not a trace of heat, plenty of fruit up front, a nice mouthfeel with a lingering finish. We paired it with sea bass and asparagus, a perfect choice. The fish was topped with lime juice, ginger, shallots, soy sauce and cilantro, and the wine held up beautifully to the mélange of strong flavors. There was enough left to have with a spinach and pine nut salad we nearly always pair with red, but this wine was a great match for the olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic dressing.
I could see this as an aperitif, a great choice for sitting on the front porch on a summer evening, or the accompaniment for a wide variety of foods. This, from a mainly red wine drinker: I wish I’d bought more when it was offered last fall, but with the summer coming, I won’t make that mistake again.
Also had a bottle of this recently, and I found that it evolved significantly as it warmed from fridge temperature towards room temp.
When cold I found the whole experience a bit lacking- not much nose or interesting things going on.
As it warmed up the typical rhone white notes appeared in the nose- I’d call it honeysuckle and apricot?
At this point it had a prominant citrus mid palate, and a juicey lychee on the finish. I found this immensly enjoyable with the Peking Duck I was eating- particularly the interaction of the unctuous duck fat and the hoisin with the wine.
After dinner at room temperature the wine was full on citrus, with a long finish of same.
As it warmed the mouthfeel got very silky and tongue coating… Which you would think wouldn’t go well with the duck fat, but it really did.
Nice interesting white that a primarily red drinker enjoyed. I think I might order some just to have this exact pairing again, as it was “port and chocolate” kind of amazing…
I neglected to mention in my earlier post how the wine evolved as it warmed up to room temperature by the time we finished the bottle. This is very similar to our experience, except that, in a rare departure from my usual clumsy practice, I actually had it warm up a bit from fridge temperature to a better drinking temp before opening.
