Fallergo White Wine

Welcome Back!  It’s week 2 of “Cocktail Month” for me and I’d like to share a wine I recently discovered while enjoying Wine Wednesday at Bar Viñedo in Queen Creek.  This is a delicious white to sip during the hot summer months as it is perfectly light and crisp. 

“Fallergo” is produced by an Italian winemaker, Gianni Gagliardo, and is a delicious dry white wine that has a bit of a sparkle to it.  I had to research this further and learned that this characteristic is called “frizzante”, which basically means that the Italians consider this to be slightly sparkling – but less effervescent than champagne.  For me, this provided that little extra touch to enhance how refreshing this wine was to drink.  This would make an ideal beverage to serve as an apéritif.

You can read more about this winemaker as well as the Fallergo on their website here - you will likely need to translate through Google, unless of course you are fluent in Italian.

To purchase this, make a visit to Bar Viñedo at the corner of Power and Rittenhouse in Queen Creek and inquire about it – you can even tell them that The Bubbly Hostess sent you!

Truro Vineyards of Cape Cod - Chardonnay

Many years ago, like in 2005, my parents visited Cape Cod.  While they were there, they made their way to Truro Vineyards and enjoyed a delightful experience there. While there, my parents bought The Hubby and I a very unique bottle of wine. 

They visited us that year for Christmas with said bottle and happily gave it to us as a gift under the tree.  This was a beautiful bottle of Chardonnay that was part of Truro Vineyard’s Lighthouse Series.  What does this mean?  Well – take a look at the photo.  Isn’t it cool?  It is in the shape of a lighthouse - it doesn't get more Cape Cod than that!  According to their website, “These wines represent a bit of a departure from the traditional wine, in large part because we put them into beautiful and colorful lighthouse shaped bottles. Sent to us from Italy, these bottles not only house wonderful wines, but are kept as keepsakes and souvenirs by tourists all over the world.”

What my parents didn’t know, was that they would learn on Christmas Day that I was expecting our first child.  So, needless to say we hung onto the bottle of wine and saved it for another day.  There it stayed in our wine refrigerator for over 8 years.  We kept shuffling it around when new wine arrived – but wanted to save it. 

With the weather warming up here in the Valley of the Sun, I have officially made the switch from reds to whites.  Finally, I said to The Hubby, “Let’s open this and drink it”.  And we did.  And it was delicious.  Wow.  Like, really amazing.  It was rich, buttery, and full of all kinds of yummy Chardonnay flavor. 

Truro Vineyards still bottles Chardonnay, but not in the Lighthouse Series.  They have reserved that series for three of their sweeter wines.  After speaking with the Truro, I also learned that they are launching a distillery and will be ready to start selling Twenty Boat Spiced Rum in May.  This won’t be shipped yet, but available if you visit the vineyard.

I hope you’ll take a look at their website, www.trurovineyardsofcapecode.com, and check out their beautiful photos and wines. 

Do you have special or unique wines that you are “saving”?  I’d love to hear about them! 

Montignac Picpoul de Pinet

I recently shared this refreshing white wine in my column for the Southeast Valley Ledger and wanted to include on the blog as well for future reference!

This bottle of Montignac Picpoul de Pinet is a light, dry, fruity wine using the Picpoul (or Piquepoul) grape white wine grape variety out of southern France.  I paired the wine with a light pasta dish that was tossed with a lemon-garlic butter and they were excellent together.  As with any dry white wine, this one would be great with chicken or seafood as well.  For the price of $9.99 per bottle, you might as well buy a couple.