Los Vascos 2007 Sauvignon Blanc

I seem to be on a Chilean wine kick recently. Perhaps this is because there are so many affordable bottles, but it's also because the region produces really nice Cab Sauvs. Plus I recently made a Chilean friend, Nico, and whenever he brings wine over, it's inevitably (surprise!) Chilean.

This weekend I actually had two Chilean wines - a Carménère and a Sauvignon Blanc. Nico brought over the Carménère on Saturday night. He and Caitlin (my roommate) had plans to make dinner, and they downed one bottle of red while I was out ice skating. Luckily, I came home just in time to open the Carménère, which Nico received as a rather generous gift from an older co-worker. I won't review it here, because it was not a "humble" wine, and I'm sure my novice tongue could not even begin to do it justice. But it was lovely: velvety and indulgent.

Interestingly, the Carménère grape was one of the original varietals grown in Bordeaux, but was imported to Chile around 1850. It's a rather finicky grape: it doesn't grow well when exposed to too much rain, and the grape often doesn't develop properly (this is called poor fruit set). After years of problems with phylloxera infestations and failed vines, most regions gave up on growing Carménère. Luckily, it seems to do just fine in Chile, so most of the world's supply is now grown there. Until the last 15 years, Carménère was often confused with Merlot in Chile, as Sauvignon Blanc was with Sauvignonasse. Scientists and wine connoisseurs finally noticed something was off, and nowadays most bottles are accurately labeled with the appropriate varietals. But if you get ahold of a pre-2000 bottle, you might find a surprise inside.

But back to the cheap wine. Sunday was Ajay's 4-year veggietastic vegetarian anniversary, so he made yummy porcini mushroom risotto and had a few of us over for a celebration. I made chewy chocolate chip ginger cookies (sounds bizarre, but whoa) and took a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to match. I'd picked it up a few months back at World Market on a wine binge and was saving it for an occasion that called for something light. We all shared a red with dinner, and only Ajay and I made it to this bottle.

This white from Casablanca Valley was a little tart and slightly acidic. I find most whites pretty easy to drink, and this was no exception. It was light, almost watery up front, but at the finish a strong citrus flavor emerged. Honestly, I didn't have a strong impression of it either way. It didn't offer the same taste journey that a red would have, but I enjoyed it. Also, I might have been distracted by the delicious risotto, addictive cookies, and Nick rolling around on the carpet.