I've been slacking lately. All this moving and packing and unpacking has me remiss in talking about one of my favorite things - wine. As an homage to getting 95% of the boxes unpacked, I opened a bottle I had been saving. It's one that I first experienced from Josh's first Creme de Cru shipment from WVV, and I'd looked for it ever since then. I found it just shortly after buying the house in June, at the local discount store BiMart, but let me assure you, this is not a "discount store" wine.
Toad Hollow is a winery out of Califorina (oh no, a California wine review!) whose mission is to create wonderful wine that is also affordable. At about $11 a bottle, I can dig that. The Toad Hollow Risque is a sparkling wine, reminiscent of champagne. However, aside from the sparkle, this is not like champagne at all. It's a light dessert wine, tasting of apple and pear, with just the right amount of fizz. Martinelli's, only not at all syrupy, and of course with alcohol content. Although it started out with a good chill, even after letting it warm up a little from casually sipping through the evening, the Risque maintained it's light mouth feel. Most dessert wines feel heavier after they warm to room tempurature, the Risque did not.
I know, I know, a California sparkling wine. But it's good, and is a great alternative to champagne. And to be fair, I learned about it through our favorite winery's Creme de Cru shipment, so it's sort of an Oregon thing.
Oh how I remember this wine. It topped off a wonderful night of wine drinking and now that you have found it at the store, I think I may acquire some more.
ReplyDeleteJust a comment: It's not a California wine. Toad Hollow is the importer, it's a French wine. It's written on the bottle, mentioned on their web site.
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