Saturday night we celebrated the (at last!) arrival of warmer
temperatures by grilling some sockeye fillets and opening some white wines.

2012 Navarro Pinot Blanc
What a sensational example of New World Pinot Blanc! It's got the floral
aromatics that I expect with the variety, but also is loaded with white
peach fruit in the midpalate and a lovely dry minerality to the finish.
It had enough acid to pair well with food and kept the whole package
light on the palate.

2010 Cowan Cellars Isa
Again I followed the winemaker's advice, serving it at cellar
temperature after giving it a good decant. It still has that herbal
quality to it that I find so fascinating, but now also an orange peel
character to the aromatics. This time, we had it on its own without food
and it still showed well, even to my two NZ SB-loving guests.

On Monday, we invited our friend Chris over to help her celebrate her
7th anniversary while her husband was out of town. We mesquite smoked
some quails stuffed with a cornbread-venison sausage stuffing and opened
a couple of different wines.

2008 Dom. Duspaquier Vin de Savoie Gamay
Much like the last bottle we had of this, but this time we consumed it
with the quail and that combination brought out the fruit and made the
wine seem more substantial. Another lovely wine from the boys at
Selection Massale.

2010 Wind Gap Chardonnay "Yuen"
Every bit as good as when we tried it at the winery, it had a lovely
sense of fruit (lemon and quince), just a hint of butter and a freshness
that comes from no new oak. Medium-light in weight, it went well with
the grilled quail.

Mark Lipton