What I Drank With Dinner (WIDWD)

For Christmas Eve dinner, it's a tradition at our table to serve chopped salad, making meal time a bit easier on a day filled with various activities. Kari's version is crafted with a multitude of ingredients including salami, chicken, provolone, mozzarella, basil, garbanzo beans, green onions, iceburg lettuce, and a wonderful vinaigrette dressing that brings it all together into a fantastic meal.

To pair with this dish, I chose a 2005 Adelsheim Willamette Valley Auxerrois and a 2006 Chateau Ste. Michelle Cold Creek Riesling. Before dinner, we popped a 2002 Argyle Sparkling Wine, which was not only a great way to kick off our Christmas Eve, but also provided a nice complement to the chopped salad. Overall, these three wines offered a nice spectrum of flavors from dry to semi-dry, complementing the meal and providing some interesting taste comparisons along the way.

But the standout wine of the night was the 2005 Adelsheim Willamette Valley Auxerrois. Auxerrois (oak-sair-wah) hails from Alsace, where it is used as a blending wine to make pinot blanc. The varietal arrived in the Willamette Valley in the late seventies, with Adeslsheim planting a vineyard in the mid-eighties. However, it wasn't until 2002 that they discovered a place (Ribbon Springs Vineyard) where Auxerrois grew in a way that fully expressed its potential.

I am so glad they kept at it.

The folks at Adelsheim are to be commended for taking a rather esoteric varietal, investing over two decades into its growth, and then crafting a truly unique, stand-alone wine. They have also done a great job sharing this story on the back label of the bottle and on their web site.

On their web site, they have a section of wines under the category, "Wacky", which is exactly where you will find the Auxerrois. And I really appreciated how they ended the Auxerrois back label's paragraph with a "Let us know what you think.". That invitation, combined with their intriguing story, prompted me to buy this wine, which cost $19.99 at my local Whole Foods.

On the nose, the '05 Adelsheim Auxerrois (13.7% alcohol) showed some sulfides, but this blew off quickly revealing hints of pear and honey. Both reappeared on the palate along with some mineralitty, which was balanced by crisp acidity in the finish. It was an intriguing wine that kept opening up more with each glass, with many of us around the table commenting on how much we were enjoying its unique taste profile. I would definitely purchase this wine again, pairing it with seafood or Asian cuisine.

The final wine served with our chopped salad was a 2006 Chateau Ste. Michelle Cold Creek Vineyard Riesling. Being semi-dry, it was a bit too sweet for the salad, but ended up pairing very well with our glazed ham sandwiches on Christmas Day. I would drink this wine again, especially with spicy Asian food, such as Thai or Indian. The Cold Creek Vineyard has been producing fruit since the early seventies, making it one of the older vineyards in Washington state.