White Wines

I have a favourite all-purpose white wine!  I like to drink it, I use it in my pasta alla carbonara, chicken, poaching fruit, in a reduction for fruit sauces, and I'll probably think of more ways to use it as I go!  Also, it's very affordable, about $13 a bottle; and according to the website, with every bottle from this line sold, the company makes a contribution to "global conservation" which I consider a bonus feature.

It's Banrock Station unoaked Chardonnay from Australia.

I used to dislike white wines because they all seemed to taste bitter and made my tongue and mouth shrivel up, the word for which I later learned was "astringent".  But the bitterness, I was told, comes from the oak barrels, and this wine was not wooded, and doesn't have that bitterness I dislike!

I do follow the adage of cooking with a wine I would drink.  However:

• I rarely finish a bottle of wine in one sitting (unless I have lots of company over).  So, I use the remaining wine for cooking, since it will only retain its subtleties for a further day or two.  
• I'm a student, and have a student's budget.  Wine which I buy to for drinking will be wine I can afford.  And again, since I don't often drink wine, it will sit unfinished for weeks, so it will likely become a cooking wine anyhow.  
• Once in a while, I will try a new wine.  Sometimes I'll like drinking it!  Sometimes I won't.  If I don't like drinking it, it will probably end up in a dish where I can't taste it too much (like in a soup).  

Another white wine I've enjoyed is Naked Grape Chardonnay, which has been "cellared in Canada".  I haven't been able to clearly identify the source of the grapes though.  I remember it didn't have as much flavour as the Banrock Station, and I think it was more acidic.  It was a "pleasant" drinking wine.  I'll update this description after drinking it again, as I'm having difficulty remembering it now.

I've also tried Naked Grape's Pinot Grigio.  It was...I think the pretentious terms are "avuncular" and "innocuous".  A less pretentious phrase that comes to mind is "sissy wine".  Don't get me wrong, it's good, I just didn't think it was....remarkable.  I drank about half the bottle and the rest went to poaching fruit.


With all this talk of white wine, you'd think I prefer white; but I've preferred red for most of my wine-drinking life.  But, there's a slightly embarrassing story behind why I haven't tried many red wines.

I discovered my favourite red wine very early, and used it all the time in cooking, even drinking sometimes!  I loved it!  And when I tried to find it in stores, I could not!  "It's a Cab Sauv from South Africa," I'd tell the floor staff, "with a green diamond-shaped label."  It took several unsuccessful trips to the Liquor Commission before I started asking my family where they got this wine.  Turns out, my brother and his friend made it!

Since then, I haven't needed red wine for cooking as much as I've needed white; so I haven't drank much red wine.  But, I was introduced to Merlot recently, when a guest brought a bottle over; and I love that deep, dark, raisiny flavour!  And recently, I tasted a Merlot from Cyprus that I absolutely loved.

When I've had more experience with reds, I'll definitely make a post about them.

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