Summer Wine Ready for Spring

Pierre Sparr 2010 Alsace Pinot Blanc

Pierre Sparr

Pinot Blanc Alsace Réserve 2010

12%

$10 by the glass (at Mon Ami Gabi, Bethesda Row)

WS 83

With a slurp-a-licious fragrant nose of spice, cardamom, white pepper and fruit and perhaps showing off stone fruit “notes” this Pinot Blanc begs for a summer’s day here in the midAtlantic. But with the mosquitoes we get, you don’t want to be sitting outside on a Friday evening sipping this. You’ll be surrounded by the biting bugs.

But this gem is perfect for these warm spring days we’re getting, and it comes with a screw top! While Wine Spectator didn’t think much of it, this old world white from France delivers a feverishly tantalizing bowlful of aroma as you lift the glass to your nose and sip your gazpacho on the terrace.

At $10 a glass at MON AMI GABI, my local lunch hangout, it’s a pretty fair price for a great every day sipper to go with lunch. You could down this cup quickly too, so be cautious; at only 12% alcohol, you’d never know you were imbibing at all. Two glasses of this on a hot day, and you’ll be smiling for the next hour or two.

Alsace Pinot Blanc and Gazpacho

It’s a wonderful treat for our weekly Wine Fridays in the suburbs. This glass is one that anyone can enjoy without the headaches that seem to come with white wine drinking when you hit middle age.

Bringing nice acidity and balance to the table–unlike the dry as a bone rieslings I’ve been having from this region lately–and with far more fragrance, Alsace Pinot Blancs generally deliver the goods. And the, is it honeysuckle?, silken soft flower petals that fill the glass without being rose-like and provide no residual sugar linger on your tongue.

Enjoy chilled, nice and chilled.

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