viura

[joeyz6]

Anyone heard of that grape? I had a wine last night called Rueda Las Brisas, from Spain obviously, and it was 50% Sauvignon Blanc, 50% Viura. It was a fairly plain wine, but I didn't have it with food. A fair amount of acidity; medium body; some lemony & herbal flavor; smooth finish.

[Scoop]

From what I know, it is an variety used primarily in Rioja, which can produce fresh young wines with nice tropical fruit (pineapple) and citrus notes. Very good for warm weather-quaffing. A very good (and cheap) example is the widely available Marques de Caceres White Rioja ($5.99 retail at Garnet in NYC).)

Cheers,

Scoop

[tandkvd]

Had the 2002 Marques de Caceres White Rioja ($5.99 @ World Market) last night with some more of the tilapia, pan fried with Zatarain's seasoned fish fry. The fish and the wine was great! The wine was fruity and very dry.

This is a good example of a fruity wine that people who say they don't like dry wines would like. I did not mention to my wife that the wine was dry, but she liked it.

[wondersofwine]

I posted under "Wine Events and Festivals" on a wine tasting in the DC area where one of the white wines we had was a 1989 Vina Gravonia Viura (from Rioja, Spain). In some geographic areas the Viura grape is called Macabeo. The 15-year-old Viura wine aged more gracefully than a 1989 Muscadet we also had that evening. The Viura wine was medium gold and both interesting and pleasant to drink. This was probably my first tasting of a Viura.