RKS Wine:  Cline Viognier North Coast California

My first choice for Viognier would be France but California produces a fair bit of it. Let’s try a Cline 2020 North Coast Viognier.

It has a light cold colour. As for aromatics it is not exactly an effusive Viognier. The first take is a wine that has some cinnamon, eucalyptus, butterscotch and pineapple. There is the honey, apricot and peach one comes to expect from a Viognier but it is lurking in the background like some nervous understudy. On the palate one senses a tightness of a cloistered wine. There is some pineapple, ginger, guava and a gentle undercurrent of early season peaches with a bit too much heat not surprising considering its 14.5% alcohol. Not much of a follow through. An OK Viognier for a summer picnic with cheese please! Easy summer drinking with lighter foods. I can’t see this handling lobster, shrimp or crab a favourite hunting ground for Viognier.

No oak thank goodness. Drink by the end of 2022. As summer is approaching and hopefully no more lockdowns if you are thinking of barbeque chicken marinated in Pirri Pirri sauce that might work. As for seafood why not roasted halibut with bacon, peas and tarragon sauce?

This is one of those whites that will improve with decanting and not served overly chilled.

A top end US supermarket wine. I can’t resist mentioning when I was last in Chicago old geezer that I am I was asked for identification at a supermarket if I was over 21!

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RKS Wine:  Cline Viognier North Coast California

My first choice for Viognier would be France but California produces a fair bit of it. Let’s try a Cline 2020 North Coast Viognier.

It has a light cold colour. As for aromatics it is not exactly an effusive Viognier. The first take is a wine that has some cinnamon, eucalyptus, butterscotch and pineapple. There is the honey, apricot and peach one comes to expect from a Viognier but it is lurking in the background like some nervous understudy. On the palate one senses a tightness of a cloistered wine. There is some pineapple, ginger, guava and a gentle undercurrent of early season peaches with a bit too much heat not surprising considering its 14.5% alcohol. Not much of a follow through. An OK Viognier for a summer picnic with cheese please! Easy summer drinking with lighter foods. I can’t see this handling lobster, shrimp or crab a favourite hunting ground for Viognier.

No oak thank goodness. Drink by the end of 2022. As summer is approaching and hopefully no more lockdowns if you are thinking of barbeque chicken marinated in Pirri Pirri sauce that might work. As for seafood why not roasted halibut with bacon, peas and tarragon sauce?

This is one of those whites that will improve with decanting and not served overly chilled.

A top end US supermarket wine. I can’t resist mentionong when I was last in Chicago old geezer that I am I was asked for identification at a supermarket if I was over 21!

(Cline 2020 North Coast Viognier, Cline Cellars, Sonoma, California, $17.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 128421, 750 mL, 14.5%, RKS Wine Rating 88/100).