A Wine For Pasta with Walnut Sauce

Snooth Wine Search:

I've sampled this wine before - same vintage - way back in December 2005. Time has not been that gracious; just hope the wine hasn't been sitting on the shelf for the year and a half. My preferred choice to accompany this dish would have been something pale and interesting from Italy but the Italian white wine section in Threshers was dismal. [see previous post]

Wine Tasting Note: Espiral Old Vine Macabeo Chardonnay, 2004, Somontano, Spain.
Threshers £5.99.
The flavour - lightly oaked, it has a distinctive waxy-edged flavour, due no-doubt to the extended age. Plenty of citrus and old pineapple flavours with a nutty dimension. There's a dry, almost tannic finish. Forceful acidity.

I'm being, perhaps, a touch harsh. The wine is certainly distinctive, refreshingly unusual and a food wine rather than for sipping on a warm summers afternoon. Alcohol 13%. The label depicts the old bush vines "from the cool climate of Somontano in the Pyreenees foothills."
Scribblings Rating - 82/100 [2.75 out of 5]

The pasta sauce was a rather richer affair than I anticipated, but exceedingly tasty despite a certain Mr May's derision! The wines acidity balanced the richness and the nutty edge became more noticeable; a good match overall.

The original recipe suggested the use of green fettuccine but, as can be seen in the photo, a substitute of Fettuccine all'uovo was brought into play.