The Desert Wine Guy - 2013 Oak Grove Family Reserve Vognier

   Today is a lazy Sunday in late September and I absolutely simply refuse to leave the house. The only problem with this is that I want a White wine and the only ones that I have in the house are ones that I have already done reviews on. Well.....I guess that's not entirely accurate, I do have one White that I haven't reviewed yet, it's an Oak Grove "Family Reserve" Viognier (pronounced Vee-Own-Yay) that has been sitting in my wine jail downstairs in the Living Room. I have had a couple of wines from this Vineyard in the past but have truthfully not been impressed. Well as I said, I'm simply not leaving the house today so I guess Oak Grove it is. Here is an admission folks, I don't believe I have ever had the varietal of Viognier before so this is a first for me, perhaps for you as well. If you are like me in that aspect don't worry because we are all about to receive a little education on the varietal. Let's go ahead then and talk a little about the varietal known as Viognier shall we? Together we will discover if this interpretation of the reviewed wine does indeed live up to it's varietal standards.

   For starters, the Vognier is a White grape that is from Southern France. The varietal is very versatile and has the ability to go from a wine that exhibits notes of tangerine, mango and honeysuckle to one that exhibits creamier aromas of vanilla with spices of nutmeg and clove. The wine can be developed in Oak or Stainless Steel, of course this would also impart different notes onto the wine. The varietal also has the ability to impart a sense of creaminess to it. Viognier is usually on the drier side and typically imparts a note of an oily mid palette. Medium acidity is also a characteristic of this varietal. A note of minerality or stone is usually also present in the varietal as well. So, now that we both know a little bit about the grape, let's dig a little bit into this specific wine and see how well it holds to its varietal standard.
   Let's begin with the Bouquet of our review wine. A light note of Peach is detected upon initially putting my nose to the glass. This isn't an overpowering Peach that might scare you into thinking this this might be a sweet or fruit forward wine, it is at a level where it simply says "I'm here, enjoy me" and nothing more. Moving on I picked up the note of Honey which was also once again at an appropriate and not overdone level.Both notes are consistent with the above characteristics we learned about this varietal. Continuing with the Bouquet I sensed a nice melon which once again was at a level of softness that still did not scare me into thinking I was about to drink a fruit bomb of a wine. Here we have an inexpensive ($8.99) wine that exhibits what this wine is supposed to exhibit and not at the expense of one note having dominance over the other. I should note here as well that none of the aromatic notes here are at what I would consider to be levels that I would think would be something that would overly attract me to one note over the other, a well balanced Bouquet. As for my initial judgement or evaluation of the wine, I am happy so far a happy camper.

   Let's now continue on and discuss how the wine presented itself in my glass. This also the time where we visually check out and even possibly make another judgement of the wine you are about to drink. Before I get into that let me say that there have been many White wines and reds that I have evaluated that are not all that impressive when it comes to their presentation in the glass or for that matter on the nose that I thought ended up being really done well. So, with that being said here we go. In my glass the wine displayed itself as light golden in color with edges of slightly darker golden edges. The edges looked nice in the Sun when I brought the glass onto my Patio. My overall presentation of the presentation in my glass was not something that I would consider anything spectacular (although it was nice) but also nothing that would turn me off or give me a negative impression about the wine either.

   Let's move along now to how the wine tasted or came across my Palette. From the beginning I will say that it appears that I am reviewing a wine that is fairly, astringent on the mid Palette and most certainly on the finish. The minerality or astringency are both on the mid to back-end but together they are both super nice and I did not find them when combined to be of offensive in any way, in fact I rather enjoyed them. There was a fairly decent note of Nectarine that was attempting to take front and center stage here and was more dominate than the other notes. A note of melon and an almost Lemon Rind presented themselves and again neither were overpowering and actually presented themselves rather well against the Nectarine, minerality and the melon. The wine was more than happy to put these wonderful notes on display for you, the drinker without having you choose a favorite note.. How about Peach you might rightfully ask. Yeah, it's here as well guys. This is something that you really have to sit back and search for however as it on the finish and soft. It almost comes across your Palette as "there is something else here" type of note and when you taste the wine you taste all the notes that I mentioned but you almost sense that there is something that you are missing. At first you aren't sure what it is but if you take a sip of the wine and sit back with it in your mouth it seems to become clear and it finally hits you that you are sensing this Peach on the finish but at a level where it almost goes by unnoticed, but not quite. Finishing up here I did sense the influence of an Oakey note to my Palette while enjoying this wine.
   Was there that Nectarine type note present that this varietal should present, yes, there was and combined with the minerality / acidity it presented itself in the category of near excellence! There was an Oakey finish to this wine that I thought was awesome and well placed. Now, please don't get me wrong, I don't want you to think that there was no fruit forwardness at all on the Palette here guys, there was some rather nice fruit, have no worries about that. I guess the question should be, is this wine a sugary / fruit forward wine? absolutely not, by no means. This is a wine that certainly does edge more toward the Minerality / acidic side especially on the finish but also exhibits a semi brightness to it.

   Alright then guys, what's up with this wine? Tell us Desert Wine Guy, what do you say? Well folks, I say that you buy this wine, buy a few bottles of this wine while you are at it actually. I enjoyed this wine....a lot. This is a brand name that I have seen carried at tons of stores here in Las Vegas valley and I can tell you that since it has been a while since I have reviewed anything from this label however in the future, I will be EXCLUDING it from my "stay away from Vineyards" list in the future. So......Desert Wine Guy, what rating do you give it? Well guys, that is a good question and thank you for asking it. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am giving this wine 90 points. 

                                                                                                                   The Desert Wine Guy
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