I love chance encounters, especially the kind that leads you to something else. That’s the case for me, from a recent dinner at Kin Shop in New York City. The restaurant’s top toque is indeed a Top Chef: Harold Dieterle, the winner from the show’s first season. The menu features Thai-inspired dishes, so the wine list offers choices that pair nicely with the food. The bottle that caught my attention was the K Vintners Viognier. I recognized the name, and that the winemaker was Food & Wine magazine’s Winemaker of the Year in 2009.
Good Viognier is hard to find, and I wasn’t completely sure about one from Washington State. But the wine was wonderful. Honeyed and floral, with stone fruits and minerality. I added it to my list of favorite wines. I also love the label, graphic and bold and distressed. Could that be a reflection of the winemaker himself?
Last week my cookbook club as a group went for lunch at Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco. It’s one of several new restaurants opened by celeb chef Tyler Florence in the Bay Area in the past year. We had to wait a long time to even get a reservation, but perseverance pays off.
In July I went to the annual Wine Bloggers Conference, held in Charlottesville, Virginia. I’d never been to that area of the country, but had always heard it was beautiful, with Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, and the University of Virginia. Throw in wine, and to me it was a trip not to be missed.
If you’re a Viognier lover like me, you want to get to Virginia wine country as soon as possible or seek out some pretty amazing bottles. It’s about time the really good wines – especially the Viogniers – get the recognition they deserve. Read more