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Crazy for Counoise: Holiday Dinner Wines Part I

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A merry Monday to you, readers! We just got back from an epic family adventure in Disneyland. I had hoped to get my Thanksgiving wine recommendation out to you a little earlier but thinking I would have time to write while on vacation was foolish optimism. The Disney experience is not for the faint of heart; you literally go all day and then all night. Fun, but hard. Us adults all required moderate doses of Advil most days. And since the Happiest Place on Earth is also the Germiest Place on Earth, we are now all dealing with various levels of a cold (because who really is going to stay away from Disney after sinking thousands of dollars into a vacation?). Thankfully, mine is barely a whisper of a cold. Viruses encounter my immune system, see I’m carrying, and run for it. Heh heh heh. 🙂

Anyway, thus begins Part I of my Holiday Dinner Wines Series.

a festival of gourdsI was flipping through a Costco magazine recently, and came across a typical “wine pairings for your Thanksgiving meal” article. I skimmed over the list. The wine and food pairing recommendations were great (doesn’t Moscato d’Asti with apple pie sound yummy?), but, unless you’re a wine geek/snob/swimming in money, do you really pair a DIFFERENT wine with SEVERAL COURSES at your gatherings??? Not only is that a ton of wine to buy, that is a ton of alcohol to drink.

At our extended family holiday meals, at least, here is the wine sitch: everybody brings wine, plops it on a designated drinks counter, and then everybody just drinks the wine they brought, unless someone (like me) insists others try what they brought (which I am always doing, so pushy). We don’t care too much about how well it matches the food – we just enjoy the wine we enjoy alongside the food we are eating. And let’s face it, the star of the Thanksgiving show is the turkey dinner, with the multiple traditional side dishes. So it seems to me what we MOST need is a wine that will play well with the major stars of the meal and be a fabulous team player. It will be delightful and welcome, but its welcome it shall not overstay.

While there are many wines clamoring for your attention, I picked this wine especially with Thanksgiving turkey dinner in mind: it partners exceptionally well with other foods, and is beautifully unique. It’s utterly delicious and I can’t think of any reason why anyone would not like it.

The wine you need, ladies and gentlemen, is Bacovino Winery’s… Counoise.

First of all, Counoise is not a weird French clown (although he could be? Hmm). Counoise (pronounced “COON – NWAHS”) is one of the red grape varieties allowed in the famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape blends of the Rhône Valley in France. Bacovino sources its Counoise from Washington state’s highly venerated Red Mountain AVA and lets it stand solo.

Here are my tasting notes for Bacovino’s 2021 Signature Counoise:

  • 100% Counoise from Red Mountain AVA
  • $30/bottle
  • A younger, lighter drinking wine
  • Kind of a cross between a dessert wine and a light-bodied red like a Pinot Noir or Frappato
  • Medium garnet/dusty crimson color with clear edge/rim
  • Highly aromatic! Bright and full of cherry, strawberry, raspberry, spice, hazelnut
  • 14.9% ABV
  • Off-dry, so a touch of sweetness
  • Rich, sweet mouth-filling fruit like black cherry, plum, strawberry preserves
  • Very background tannins (wallflowers?) to give a little structure
  • Tart acidity to keep you coming back for more
  • Amazing, warm, lingering finish
  • Serve slightly chilled, but not so chilled you can’t appreciate the aromatics

For those of you in the greater Seattle area, you can probably snag this wine in time for Thanksgiving. And if you’re not, go ahead and order some in time for Christmas; the same sorts of traditional holiday foods will work well with this wine. And even if you don’t celebrate any holidays or pair wines with foods, you still need to get this wine. No excuses (hint hint, it’s wonderful in the summer, too!).

No need to buy half a dozen or more different wines to try and pair with every last item on the menu (although if you are going to do that, please tell me what you did and how you liked the pairings!). Keep it simple, and surprise your loved ones with a delicious and delightful red like Bacovino Counoise.

Just be sure to buy more than you think you’ll need… it’s that good, and Christmas is coming up soon, too, after all. 😉

P.S. Bacovino is opening up a second location on the Seattle Waterfront very soon! Go check it out or see them in the mean time at their Tukwila winery and tasting room.

Sangiovese grapes fermenting at Bacovino Winery

Sangiovese grapes fermenting at Bacovino Winery in Tukwila, Washington. Owner and winemaker Randy Brooks let us help with punch down on one occasion. Talk about a workout!

Related Posts on Bacovino:
Sangiovese
Dessert Wine
Viognier

Hooray for Viognier!

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To my white wine drinking readers, let me offer my sincerest apologies… the last several posts have all been on BBRs (big bold reds). You are no doubt growing impatient as you wait for me to recommend a great white that is not a shark. Tell you what: we’ll change things up today and shift gears with a BBW (big bold white), how ’bout? 🙂

Hooray for Viognier! Today is International Viognier Day, and boy am I excited. Viognier (vee-ohn-yay) is perhaps my favorite white wine ever, and if you haven’t tried this wine yet, hold on to the edge of your seat, because you are in for a treat! 🙂

Viognier is a grape that almost didn’t survive. That would be a miserable world, let’s not think about that. But there were only a scant number of acres of it hanging on for dear life in the Rhône Valley in France in the 1960s when some erudite drinkers smacked themselves up the sides of their heads and said, “Wait a second, this cannot and shall not be!” Good on them for rescuing this lovely grape from virtual extinction.

While Viognier is still not terribly common, it is now cultivated around the world. In the USA in particular, California and Virginia are well-known regions for growing Viognier. Oregon and Washington also grow excellent Viognier. In France, Viognier wine is known as Condrieu (remember, many European wines are named by place not by grape variety).

When I learned International Viognier Day was rolling around, it did not take me a single moment to decide which Viognier to write about: the 2020 Signature Viognier from Bacovino Winery (see my post on their incredible Sangiovese). Sourced from Walla Walla Valley grapes, it is fragrant, rich, and full-bodied but still with pleasant, refreshing acidity.

Bacovino Signature Viognier Walla Walla Valley

Bacovino Signature Viognier Walla Walla Valley

Here are the details and my impressions of the wine:

  • $27/bottle at Bacovino Winery
  • Fermented in 100% stainless steel. Whole cluster press, settling for one day, cold fermentation in stainless, lees stirred weekly, traditional cold stabilization in stainless, then bottle aged for 3 months
  • 14.5% ABV
  • Pale straw color
  • Rich, full body, supple mouthfeel, honey-like texture
  • Medium acidity
  • Enchanting aromatic bouquet: honeysuckle, grapefruit, stone fruit (peach or nectarine), and some tropical fruit also (kiwi and/or lychee)
  • Refreshing citrus and melon flavors on the palate

I love wines from the Walla Walla Valley AVA, so I asked Bacovino winemaker Randy Brooks why he chose this particular AVA for Viognier grapes. He responded:

“Walla Walla is perfect for growing Viognier, warm days and cool nights preserve the natural acidity of the grape while allowing the gentle development of both aromatics and body. Viticulturists in Walla Walla have a wealth of experience growing some of the highest quality Viognier in the world, allowing us to make a well-balanced wine that is expressive and can be enjoyed throughout the year.”

Randy likens his Viognier to a warm spring day and notes that it “pairs exceptionally well with Thai food.”

There you go, folks! We just solved your Friday night dinner and drink dilemmas: Thai food and Bacovino Viognier for the win! 🙂

So how do we get our paws on this wine? the ravenous white wine drinkers demand. Well, you can order it through Bacovino’s website or purchase directly at the winery.

Sadly, Bacovino has low stock of this wine right now, and is not planning on making any more Viognier for the time being (noooooo!).

So, as Janis Joplin sang, get it while you can! Because once it’s gone, it’s gone!

Do you love Viognier as much as I do? Comment!

PS: Go taste wine at Bacovino soon! Or if you can’t get there in person, you can order their wines online. Here are all of their new releases (see website for several other current releases). Plenty to keep you busy, and let me tell you, they are fantastic! ❤

Signature Chardonnay – Ancient Lakes of Columbia Valley
Signature Rivalon (blend) – Columbia Valley
Signature Counoise – Red Mountain
Signature GSM – Red Mountain
Vintner’s Merlot (extended oak aging) – Yakima Valley
Vintner’s Cabernet Franc – Columbia Valley
Vintner’s Petit Verdot – Red Mountain
Reserve Syrah – Red Mountain

A New Favorite: Bacovino Sangiovese + Recipe

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Bacovino Winery: Creating Beautiful and Bountiful Wines that are Truthful Expressions of Washington Terroir

If you’ve been drinking wine long enough, and tried a good handful of varieties, you get it – we all have certain wines that are not at the top of our favorites list. I’ve mentioned a time or two that I could care less about Pinot Grigio (ugh, even saying it gets me annoyed, ha ha). Well, the red wine equivalent of that for me has tended to be Sangiovese. When doing a red wine tasting, no matter where, the Sangiovese is often my least favorite wine. Yes, sometimes they’re OK, but I’m not usually compelled to purchase a bottle like I would a tried-and-true Cab or Syrah.

But that all changed at Bacovino Winery. My typical aversion to Sangiovese toppled when I tried this particularly wowing wine.

Bacovino Winery opened its tasting room in November 2021 in Tukwila, Washington, which is literally the first city bordering Seattle to the south. Owner and Winemaker Randy Brooks is an ardent fan of Washington grapes (me, too!) and is committed to honoring the character of each grape variety through the highest quality winemaking. You can read more about his winemaking philosophy and practices here.

I have been in the tasting room several times now and every time I have gone in I am treated extremely well by friendly, knowledgeable people, and I enjoy some truly special and delicious wines. The wines are outstanding examples of Washington terroir. My personal favorites are their Viognier, Merlot, and – whoddathunkit – Sangiovese (I will post on these other favorites in the future!). In fact, their Sangiovese might be my favorite of their wines, and it is definitively one of the best Sangioveses I have ever had.

So how does one of my lesser favorite red varieties hop to the top of my “MUST DRINK” list?

This is not a typical Italian/Old World Sangiovese with sky high acidity, brisk/coarse tannins, and even a touch of bitterness. This is Washington/New World fruit that has been made into a very pleasing and drinkable wine. It’s got the lightest amount of sweetness, round and present fruit and spice notes, and balanced acidity, alcohol, and tannins that make it exceedingly food-friendly. As a native Washingtonian it probably comes as no surprise this is my preferred style.

Hooray, I finally found a Sangiovese I LOVE!

Here are my impressions and some details of the Bacovino 2018 Signature Sangiovese:

  • $32/bottle
  • Medium garnet color
  • Medium body
  • 15.05% ABV
  • Aromas/Flavors: Cherry, Currant, Fig, Tomato Leaf, Brown Sugar, Vanilla, Licorice
  • Moderate acidity: just right!
  • Tannins pleasantly robust and blend perfectly with the rest of the wine
  • Lovely finish

This wine is distinct and fabulous on its own, but I wanted to challenge myself so I decided to research a great food pairing for this wine, and I found one. Eating Well’s Cheesy Marinara Beans taste like something you’d order at your favorite Italian bistro but are quite easy and affordable to make (plus vegetarian and gluten-free, if you prefer such things) – all bonus virtues right now with inflation!

Here is the recipe. This dish went GREAT with the wine!

A great food and wine pairing tip to remember is that Sangiovese is an ideal mate for foods with tomato sauce.

Go do a tasting at Bacovino, get some of this Sangiovese, make this recipe, and you will be one very happy camper. Don’t be surprised if you discover some new favorites yourself! 🙂

Speaking of cheese, Bacovino offers a veritable plethora of community events and classes, from live music to paint nights to floral arranging workshops to CHEESE classes! Haven’t you always wondered how to make all the different types of cheese (while eating them, no less)? I personally have not taken a class yet but it is on my to-do list. 🙂 Definitely check out these wonderful classes for a fun activity.