So let's just call that a trial run. Following the publication of my first entry, there was a nasty bike fall and a one month hospital stay in which I learned the following lessons: 1) the need for padded handlebars 2) the exact consistency of a 5 year old's pancreas and 3) that a 2 week vacation wine list could, given proper time and energy, take on Shakespeare-like Dimensions. Only #3 need apply here.
To me, nothing says vacation like a good bottle of white. Particularly something crisp, aromatic with layered whispers of all things summer: grass, wild flowers, honeysuckle, and ripe stone fruit. A wine to fit the place, the way it normally would fit the course. The mineral notes of a Muscadet sur lie to offset the blazing sun and salty breeze; or a slate-laced Riesling kabinett to harmonize with the fresh floral notes of a Swiss mountain hut. A hint of sweetness, the perfect accompaniment to a romantic sunset walk. A good vacation wine should fit the taste, the mood, the setting. And a great one will let you relive the day all over again.
Friday night involved a lovely 2010 Rauenthaler Baiken, Riesling kabinett Trocken from Langwerth Von Simmern. Sweet smoky slate, ripe apricots, a body with the structure and finesse of spun gold laced with wild thyme. Sunday's choice was a 2010 Vignobles Despagne Château Tour de Mirambeau Blanc, Entre-Deux-Mers. Straw yellow with a nose of elderberry flowers, wet grass and a hint of honeysuckle. The biting acidity is followed by a creamy body--fuller than I expected from the light nose--and a tangerine/pink grapefruit finish. The perfect accompaniment for some of the creamier Danish cheeses I discovered today at the cheese shop in town, as well as the fresh grass of the dune views and smoke of the dying campfire. It's a landscape in minor notes with the perfect light and lacy wines to compliment it.
All that said, my 9 (now 7) bottles of perfectly chosen summer white, have so far been consumed while dressed in 3 layers topped with a fleece vest while watching the storm strength winds rip rain across the dunes, and dreaming of the 2005 Madiran I left back in Berlin. Lesson learned here: as important as matching the wine to the setting, don't forget to first check the weather.
