Wine of the Week: Vistini Ribolla Gialla Colli Orientali del Friuli 2010

Ribolla Gialla is one of my all-time favorite grapes. It’s also an excellent way to wean your friends off Pinot Grigio. It’s usually more complex and less fruity – tighter and more elegant. That said, Vistini makes an amazing orange-hued(from skin maceration) Pinot Grigio.

One strange thing about this wine is that it gets more intense in the mid-palate, which is the opposite of pretty much every other wine. It might be just a short phase this bottle is going through or a phase that my taste buds are going through as well.

Wine of the Week: Château Pierre-Bise Anjou 2008 Having opened several highly oxidized white wines this week I was getting a little gun-shy. Happily this wine was in perfect condition and drinking really well right now. It definitely pushes all my buttons: restrained but flavorful, elegant, natural and amazingly inexpensive.