Saturday, May 16, 2009

2007 Novy Family Wines Viognier

Adam & Dianna Lee of Siduri, together with Dianna’s Texas-based family, the Novy’s, formed Novy Family Wines in 1998. Adam & Dianna wanted the challenge of working with varietals other than Pinot Noir and the Novy’s, who traveled each year to work harvest and bottling at Siduri, longed to expand their involvement in the wine business. While Novy Family Wines specializes in producing single vineyard Syrah from Napa, Sonoma and Santa Lucia Highlands, Adam and Dianna’s zeal for finding exceptional vineyard sites has resulted in small bottlings of other varietals as well, including Zinfandel, Grenache, Viognier, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. The name Novy means “new” in Czech and celebrates and embraces the families old heritage working with new world wines.

Aromas: ripe, crisp peach and pear, hints of fresh apricot and jasmine
Body: medium
Color: straw yellow

From their website: Quite frankly, we love Viognier. There is something so beguiling about the nose, the crisp acidity, and the pure fruit that it is difficult for us to refuse a glass (or two), especially when the weather warms up. We try to capture that lively spirit of the grape in our Viognier by picking fairly ripe fruit (but not over ripe), by fermenting the juice entirely in stainless steel, and by eschewing malolactic fermentation. All of these techniques seem to help preserve the wonderful fruit while retaining the crispness that keeps the wine fresh.

The 2007 Novy Viognier was picked on September 27 and immediately pressed to bins to settle for 24 hours, racked to two different tanks and fermented using a combination of yeasts. At dryness the wine was racked to stainless steel barrels where it was kept until bottling in May.

With crisp pear and peach aromas, wonderfully forward and sweet tasting fruit, and a long, crisp finish, this is the perfect wine to serve at the beginning of a meal.

Eat with: Atlantic diver scallops, fingerling potatoes, English peas & shoots, red pearl onions & pea vinaigrette.

http://www.novyfamilywines.com/index.html