Sensational. But let me add: Full Disclosure—I’m not on the “Viognier is all” vogue train. It’s the be all end all for some but it’s also, often, patently dull. Not this stunning white from La Frenz in Naramata.
The La Frenz sips well, very well, and better yet was superlative with food, has exceptional generous fruit, and is just one of those perfect, social wines without pretense or affectation, yet with incredible intensity and flavour. It reminded us of a lovely summer Muscat we also loved and reviewed here.
Dinner? We drank it with harissa-marinated shrimp on a salad of summer cherry tomatoes, cucumber, Italian parsley and red onion. Superb, Taylor and Burton on a good day. If you could bottle this and sell it, by god you’d be rich!
The downside? I didn’t order much as I’m not (generally) a Viognier fan and then the next thing you know it’s sold out and probably the only place I’ll see it is in a restaurant at the groan-inducing price of $45 or more… Many medal wins of course.
Price: $22 from the vineyard.
Market Liquidity: Astonishingly good value.

One response to “La Frenz Viognier, 2011”
[…] recent vintages of wines we loved” week we sampled a newer La Frenz Viognier. In our review of the 2011 Viognier we went rather ga-ga, oohing and awing at the wonder of it all. Well, hmm, yeah. I don’t think […]