{"id":359,"date":"2009-04-07T17:16:49","date_gmt":"2009-04-08T00:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danthewineguy.com\/?p=359"},"modified":"2009-04-12T17:38:11","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T00:38:11","slug":"viognier-from-washington-offers-plenty-of-variety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/?p=359","title":{"rendered":"Viognier from Washington Offers Plenty of Variety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve tried viognier you already know it\u2019s a white wine full of surprises \u2013 fragrant, fruity, full-bodied, and adaptable to plenty of foods.<\/p>\n<p>For those of you still sitting on the sidelines, what are you waiting for? The pronunciation isn\u2019t too tricky (vee-ohn-yay) and if you\u2019ve tried chardonnay and enjoyed it, then viognier is just a baby step away.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.winesnw.com\/images\/kestrellogo_press.gif\" alt=\"null\" \/>Washington wineries provide a great place to begin your viognier tasting, and a few selections that I\u2019ve recently enjoyed include the <strong>Kestrel Vintners 2007 Estate Viognier <\/strong>(about $22) from Prosser. This versatile wine has a pleasant aroma of honeysuckle and citrus, peach and melon flavors, a spritz of acidity and a lightly oaky, yet creamy finish. It\u2019s a natural to pair with fish, poultry or cream-based pasta dishes.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve also been extremely impressed with winemaker Paul Portteus\u2019 current releases and his <strong>Portteus Vineyards 2007 Viognier<\/strong> (about $24) is no exception. Although he\u2019s been in the wine industry for almost 30 years, this is Portteus\u2019 first vintage of viognier \u2013 and it\u2019s a grand slam. It features a bouquet of tropical fruits, plenty of fresh peach and apricot flavors and a lingering, yet dry finish capped by a touch of vanilla. Outstanding!<\/p>\n<p>Start with a subtle fragrance of peaches and sweet alfalfa, and then dive into a glass of <strong>Zefina 2007 Viognier <\/strong>(about $20) from Washington\u2019s Horse Heaven Hills appellation. It\u2019s loaded with nectarine and honeydew melon flavors, along with a finish that\u2019s both creamy and textured with a bit of a spicy edge. This big, well structured viognier is powerful, yet elegant and it\u2019s indicative of the terrific wines of this varietal being produced in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on these and other wines visit each winery\u2019s web site at www.kestrelwines.com, www.portteus.com, and www.zefina.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve tried viognier you already know it\u2019s a white wine full of surprises \u2013 fragrant, fruity, full-bodied, and adaptable to plenty of foods. For those of you still sitting on the sidelines, what are you waiting for? The pronunciation isn\u2019t too tricky (vee-ohn-yay) and if you\u2019ve tried chardonnay and enjoyed it, then viognier is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-washington-wines","category-from-the-bellingham-herald","category-white-wines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}