Viansa Pierina 07

Here is another white wine from Viansa. We opened it because we made fish for dinner.

The bottle says they are the only producer of Viernaccia in the the US. Typically, it is crafted to display flinty, almost mineral flavors, but they try to produce a more multi-dimensional fruity style of wine that still stays true to its origins. So, this is another pseudo-Italian wine. Estate grown Carneros grapes. 14.1% alcohol.

This wine is a fairly colorful white wine in the glass. The nose presents sour apple and pear. On the palate, there is a peachy, chardonnay taste. Bitter Oak dominates the finish.

We would not buy this wine again, but the other wine from the same vintner was excellent.

Viansa Arneis 07

We received some requests to review white wines as well as red, so we picked up this promising find at Gross Out. They wanted only $3.99 for this "$18 elsewhere" wine. Arneis apparently means "a little crazy or a little rascal" and is the varietal.

The bottle says the California vintners have Italian heritage. This variety is rarely grown and produced in California. "Arneis has unique, delicate flavors and aromas of pear and green apples followed by a wonderfully crisp finish. Arneis... produces a wonderful light, well balanced wine with firm acidity and elegant fruit." This bottle has a natural cork. 13.5% alcohol.

The wine has a lovely golden color in the glass. Swirling finds the wine is very dry. We detected pear and apricot on the nose. Pear also dominates the palate with a spicy finish. This wine is somewhat like a Chenin Blanc, but more robust mouthfeel. This wine was very smooth throughout and enjoyable for these red wine drinkers.

We rate this as a good value and would buy it again. The interwebs say this is the "white Borolo" which is a great compliment in our book.