Wine Review: Penya Viognier 2016 Cotes Catalanes

It takes a lot to get me to write about wine these days. There was a time (on this very blog) when I used to write about wine regularly, but a.) I stopped drinking as much of it, and b.) I started writing about other things. Which is why, IMHO, Penya Viognier 2016 Cotes Catalanes is that much more remarkable; it is such a good wine for your money that it spurred me to start writing about wine again.

If you see some of this in your local wine store, buy it. This bottle set me back all of about $9.99+tax and has so far provided two evenings of extremely pleasurable drinking. The first night we drank it (as our 2nd bottle) with some breaded pork chops and sauteed garlic spinach; now we sip the remainer of the bottle unaccompanied by any food, two days later. The wine has kept it's body and freshness.

Cotes Catalanes is an AOC that lies in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the glorious wine country of the Southwest of France. I personally do not have much experience with the Viognier grape (didn't actually even know of its existence until I drank this wine) and I'm not usually a "white wine guy." But damned if this wine isn't really, really close to making me one.

There is something rich and solid about this wine. It is strong and, unlike a lot of other whites I taste, it has backbone. Taste-wise it reminds of ripe melon but tempered with a beautiful, subtle minerally flavor (which real wine aficionados say does not exist). It manages to be a little "sweet" without drifting into Muscato territory at all.

That's about as well as my atrophied "wine reviewing muscles" can describe it. Enjoy.