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Alright, Sippers... this week, I'm breaking down one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITES: Viognier! It's unfamiliar to many wine drinkers and if you're one of them, you're missing out!

It's such a versatile white wine that pairs beautifully with a range of dishes: from the traditional Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes (my family) to spicy food, cheeses and so much more!

What you'll hear:

• A fun way to remember how to pronounce it... a fun little cheer that will have you shouting “VIOGNIER” like me!
• I mean, talk about aromatics? And why does my Aunt Vivian want to dab it behind her ear?
• Why it’s considered the "red wine drinker's white."
• The nuances of Viognier’s flavor and texture and what makes it unique
• The perfect pairings that shine with this wine

To get this week's Sip Spotlight wine, visit Pride Mountain Vineyards website and sign up for the mailing list if you're not already, or not yet a member of the Summit Circle (which you can also do there). Available to non-members on 4/15/25 in limited quantities at $49/bottle. Members always get it guaranteed and first!

Follow Pride Mountain Vineyards on Instagram or Facebook to learn more about this special place I've called home for 13 years.

Other Links and Resources:

The wine that I make, Sollevato Sangiovese is available to be shipped to most US States. (Use the code PODLISTENER for 10% off.) It's a delicious, medium bodied, aromatic red wine that is perfect with pizza, pasta and your charcuterie spread!

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And still to this day, when I fly home to New Jersey, every Christmas on Christmas Eve, we do the feast of the seven fishes. Sometimes we only have five or six. Don't tell. Hopefully we'll still go up, not down. But we typically start Christmas Eve with caviar. Yes, we splurge.

And oysters. And Viognier is a perfect pairing with those things. Hello and welcome to this week's Sip with Nikki.

I'm Nikki Lamberti here in Sonoma County, California, and if you're a regular listener, welcome back. I see you. I thank you for joining again. And if you're new, awesome. You picked a great week to jump in.

Now, if you read the title of this week's episode is Hooray for Viagner or Hooray for Vigener, you didn't perceive me to be nearly as clever as I am because it's Hooray for Viognier. It rhymes.

And I am extra happy that you're here because I'm giving the lowdown on a very unique, but one of my most favorite grapes and wines that I love to drink, which is Viognier. And over the years, I've had the pleasure of introducing it to so many people and no one can pronounce it. So if you stumbled, no worries.

So I wanted to start off by answering a listener question that comes right off the bat from Amanda in Brentwood, California. Listener questions, who may or may not be my younger sister.

But Amanda wanted to know, is there a hack, a tip for remembering how to pronounce this grape's name? So, yes, Amanda, here's your hack. Start with the letter V. You can even do this like a little cheerleader cheer. Make a V with your hands.

Then crisscross your arms like you're hugging the front of yourself. Own. Own it. And then, yay. Raise your hands above your head because we get so excited about it. V. Own. Yay. That's how we pronounce it.

And more importantly, we love to drink it. So this week I'm going to tell you what you need to know about it, why it's so delicious, some of my favorite food pairings, and then get ready.

We're gonna do a sip spotlight of a highly coveted super delicious California version of Viognier that is releasing and you'll be able to get your hands on in just a couple of weeks in mid April. So are you ready? Because here we go with Hooray for Viognier.

So I have had the absolute privilege to introduce probably hundreds, if not thousands of wine drinkers to this lesser known grape, Viognier. Viognier can't see.

But it is so fun to blow people's minds with this because it is really rare and there's just not a lot of it planted on the planet. And the majority of it is actually in France in the northern Rhone region. But we have a small amount of it planted here in California.

It can also be found in Australia, Portugal, Texas, Wine country, believe it or not, Washington, Oregon.

And really a surprising US Wine region that is known for Viognier is Virginia, especially in the Charlottesville region, where Dave Matthews, maybe you've heard of him, has his Blenheim Vineyards.

There is a lot of Viognier in the Virginia wine country, and Blenheim Vineyards, actually bottles of Viognier and a Viognier blend blended with some other Rhone region white grapes, Marsanne and Roussanne. And that actually has a special painted label by David. But California, especially Napa and Sonoma, you're starting to see it a little bit more.

I feel. Feel like it's catching on.

And one of the reasons that it's been rare to grow and make Viognier, especially in California, is that it can be tricky to grow and tricky to make. You've got to really plant it in the right location.

And sometimes the grape is a little finicky with the growing season and how the fruit flowers and sets. So you've got to be really committed to finding the right farming for it. But, man, when you find that right spot, it is gorgeous.

So Viognier is known as the Red wine Drinkers white, because those of us who love a big, rich, bold kind of mouth coating, think of Cab or Merlot. Believe it or not, Viognier, even though it's a white grape, it sits in your mouth more like a red. Now, it doesn't taste like a red, okay?

But the weight and the body of it, and you've heard me talk about the milk scale, using that to equate the word body in wine Think of the milk scale. Think of skim milk, 1%, 2%, whole half and half cream. I don't know where almonds and oat and all those newfangled milks fit in there.

So for my analogy, we're going standard cow. But most white wine, think of if you had a sip of Sauvignon Blanc or I hope you are sipping some Sauvignon Blanc right now.

How does that weight and that viscosity feel in your mouth? It's probably pretty skim, maybe 1%. Right?

Whereas think of like a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Zinfandel or rich red wine that's probably a little notched up in the weightiness in the body. So Viognier, for a white wine, I'm going to notch up to at least like a 2% or even a whole milk weight.

It just has that creaminess in the mouth and then beautiful crisp finish from the acidity on the back end. Now, the grape Viognier is in the same family of grapes as Riesling and Gewurchtamiener.

We call them the aromatic white grapes because they're like perfume in the glass.

You know, the first time Aunt Vivian back from the Aunt Vivian episode in season one, if you haven't listened to 88 year old Brooklyn Aunt Vivian, she share her stories, go back to that.

But the first time I ever brought this Viognier Pride Viognier home to New Jersey and put it in the glass and presented it to Aunt Vivian, she smelled it and then she acted like she was dipping her fingers in it and dabbing it behind her ears and on her wrist points because it's like perfume and people just want to wear it. Now, when I say the grape is in the same family as Riesling and Gewurch demeanor, right away most people's mind goes to oh, so it must be sweet.

If you've listened to the hey Sugar episode where I talk about sweetness in wine, not all Riesling is sweet, right? The grape can be made through winemaking on a spectrum of dry on one end to sweet on the other and everywhere in between.

And the same thing goes for Viognier. The majority of Viogniers that we enjoy and the sip spotlight that I'm gonna do today, they are dry, meaning not sweet.

All of the sugar that was in those grapes has been converted to alcohol, which we love, and it is just stunning. Viognier is actually my dad's favorite wine. Shout out to Big Dominic in New Jersey.

And when I was talking to him this week and told him I was going to be recording about Viognier. I said, dad, what do you want to share about it and why do you love it so much? And he said, it just has such a nice dry taste. It's not sweet.

He said, a lot of white wines are sweet, especially ones that he's enjoyed in his years. And he said, it's just nice. And if you know my dad, those are some powerful words right there.

The other thing that is so interesting and intriguing about this grape and Viognier in the glass is when you smell it. It's known for having not only floral notes like honeysuckle and jasmine.

In fact, that honeysuckle note is a very nostalgic note for me because growing up in central New Jersey, we had a big honeysuckle bush behind our shed in our backyard. And I have great memories of my two sisters and I learning how to pull that little.

I think it's the stamen, the center of that honeysuckle flower out where you get that little drip of honey and put it on your tongue. So when I smell Viognier, I am immediately transported behind the shed, which sounds weird, but it's a very positive memory.

Jasmine, orange blossom, right? Reminds me of when I lived in central Florida in the springtime. It has all of those floral notes.

But then this grape is also known for having what we call stone fruit on the nose and in the mouth. A stone fruit is anything with a pit, right? So think of a peach or an apricot, sometimes pear, sometimes citrusy note, too. So just on the nose.

It's super intriguing. And then what I absolutely love about this wine is I will ask people, okay, smell it. And they do. And then I say, taste it.

And then I say, does this wine taste like it smells? And a lot of people say, no, which is exciting and intriguing because it takes you on a journey and then makes a left turn.

A lot of wine, you smell it and you're like, okay, I smell A, B and C, and I think I'm going to taste A, B and C, whatever those notes are. And then you taste it and it tastes like A, B and C. And that's pleasing, too, right? What you smelled leads you and was confirmed on the palate.

But what I love about Viognier is you might be smelling A, B and C. And then when you taste it, you taste C, D and E.

And I think because of the interesting aromatics and floral, I think people think think it's going to be sweet. And then it has a Very pleasing dry finish, mouth coating because of that weight and viscosity and then that just clean finish on the back end.

If you're a regular listener, you've heard me talk about Evan Goldstein, who is the author of Perfect Pairings, one of my go to books that I use. And Evan's going to be a guest soon on the podcast.

But when I read his chapter on Viognier, he talks about, quote, it's a rare and idiosyncratic grape. Its flavors are unique, exotic and provocative. And it's dynamite with food.

Evan, I totally agree, in my opinion, and this is one of the reasons that not only me, but friends and family that I've shared Viognier with why we love it so much. It is so versatile with food now it doesn't need food. You can just enjoy it.

But Evan, I agree with you that it is fantastic with a cheese course and it can pair with almost any cheese, from a hard cheese like a gouda to a triple cream to a blue drizzled with honey. Oh my gosh. But what we love Viognier with is shellfish. And my family on my dad's side is Italian.

And, and so growing up, we had a lot of Italian influence in our cuisine and our cooking. And still to this day, when I fly home to New Jersey every Christmas on Christmas Eve, we do the feast of the seven fishes.

Sometimes we only have five or six. Don't tell. Hopefully we'll still go up, not down. But we typically start Christmas Eve with caviar. Yes, we splurge and oysters.

And Viognier is a perfect pairing with those things. So is sparkling wine or champagne. But man, Viognier sits in the pocket, especially when you have some of that brininess.

And then typically the rest of our seven Fishes menu is Dad's famous stuffed baked clams. There's usually a scampi, there's usually some crab claws with mustard remoulade sauce.

And we stockpile Pride Viognier through the year because it's usually gone by Christmas time and we go through more than a few bottles during the holidays the rest of the year. We love Viognier with sushi.

So when Michael and I go to our local sushi spot, Osake here in Santa Rosa, he actually is in a special club, he being the owner, Gary, where he gets some Pride Viognier, a supply to have on the menu and half bottles, which is super rare. And one of my absolute favorite pairings on this planet is at our sushi restaurant. It is a yellow tail or hamachi carpaccio.

And it's sliced super thin on the plate. Then there's a paper thin slice of serrano pepper with a dot of sriracha on the top.

And then these pieces are plated in yuzu, which is like a citrusy soy base.

And so you take a bite and you've got cle fish, you've got citrus, you've got saltiness from the soy, and you have a mild heat from the pepper and the sriracha on there. And then you take a sip of that Viognier. Stop. Like, I can't even. It is just amazing. So love it with sushi. Now I'm talking about fish.

And yeah, that's expected. And a lot of times we think, okay, but if I'm going to go into proteins like chicken or even beef, probably need to move to red wine and spicy food.

Like, especially if you like Thai or curry and you like some heat in your curry, like we do.

You know, spicy food like that can be really hard to pair with wine because when you get that heat going in your mouth, if you go and have a sip, and I don't care if it's white or red, a lot of times the heat kind of shuts down and like explodes the wine, not in a good way. And the wine just seems harsh and alcoholic.

But for me, in every situation where I've paired Viognier with spice and I've done it a lot, it's almost like a cooling fire hydrant. It puts out the heat in between the bites. And it is spectacular because Viognier has that weight and that body.

Some of the most surprising and delicious pairings I've had with it were actually with protein, especially something like a chicken or a duck. You've all heard me mention Karen McNeil and the wine Bible, which is my other go to reference set of books.

And Karen has been a guest on the podcast before. And when you read Karen's writings about Viognier, she talks about because of the super fruity aroma. An awesome pairing is anything with fruit in it.

So like roasted chicken with an apricot glaze or even just sauteed apples with a sip of Viognier. Oh, my gosh. And if I was doing sauteed apples, there'd be like a little hunk of a triple cream cheese on that as well.

When it comes to aging Viognier, it doesn't need it.

And you can age some white wines, especially something like Chardonnay, they get really interesting and take on some new notes and new layers and nuttiness.

But what we celebrate and love about Viognier is that freshness, that vibrancy, those aromatics, and that does not increase with time or bottle aging. It actually decreases. So that's something that's really fun about Viognier. You can buy it and drink it right away. Instant gratification.

And you're going to want to drink it right away because it's so freaking delicious. So now it's time for this week's Sip Spotlight. Sip Spotlight and Guilty Pleasure. I'm going to be a total homer on this one.

Going with Pride Mountain Vineyards Viognier. I've already teased you with that.

Now, there are some other beautiful and lovely Viogniers coming out of this area, but Pride Viognier is what introduced me and created the love affair for me for Viognier. And I want you to be able to get your hands on on some of it.

Our current winemaker is Matt Ward, and I'm going to have Matt on the podcast hopefully here soon, and we can get his thoughts. But releasing on April 15th.

What a much better thing to celebrate on April 15th than tax day is Viognier release day at Pride Mountain Vineyards, and it's going to be available on the 15th.

If you're listening to this and you're already a member of Pride Mountain Vineyards Summit Circle, then you're gonna get yours sooner, because remember, that's one of the perks of the membership, is you get the new vintage first, and then once the dust settles and they fulfill all of the wine club orders, then it will be made available to our mailing list and in the tasting room. And if you sign up for Pride's mailing list, which you can do on pridewines.com, i'll put the link in the show notes.

You can get an offering and allocation to be able to call up and purchase some bottles. Or if you're on the mailing list, you'll get an email when it releases.

You cannot just go on Pride's website and shop for this wine because it's really limited.

So it's important that you sign up for the email list first, and that way they'll send you an email, which is your back door, and then you can order it from there.

And we're typically sold out at Pride of Viognier within a matter of months because it has a cult following, and I might be the president of that cult, and it's just not a very large production.

And one of the things that's always been impressive to me is that even though this wine is in really high demand and coming out of a premium area like Napa and Sonoma, it is a great price point at $49 a bottle. And Pride will always honor complimentary shipping on a case or more.

A case is 12, whether it's 12 bottles of the same wine or if you want to mix and match, however you get to a case, complimentary shipping to all states that they can ship to, even Hawaii, which is pretty amazing. Pride Mountain Vineyards, which straddles the Napa, Sonoma county line.

The majority of the grapes on that property and what we make is Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which are also delicious. But there's just a couple little pockets of the vineyard that are planted to Viognier. So it's a small production and it goes fast.

Again, goes back to the fact that we celebrate the vibrancy and the freshness. It's a white wine, so there's no tannin, so it doesn't need time to settle down as much.

The wine is fermented in the big stainless steel tanks, and then it's aged in oak barrels, French oak, but they are neutral.

And again, if you have followed along, you've heard me talk about what that means, that means barrels that have been used multiple times over and lost their oakiness. So Pride Mountain Viognier is an example of a wine that's aged in oak, but is not oaky.

But because it's in these older barrels, the texture of it is creamier and softer than if it was aged in stainless steel, which also does exist. But I think this combination that our previous winemaker, Sally Johnson. Go back to the second episode of Sip. You can listen to Sally.

And it is perfection. So last year, just to give you an example, James Suckling, who is a well known wine critic.

In fact, if you explored the whole Masterclass series like we did here in our house, we did Thomas Keller's Pasta Making, and James Suckling actually had a wine tasting masterclass in there. So you may recognize the name, but I love his descriptions. And this is pretty typical. Like, even though from year to year and vintage to vintage.

There can be some subtle nuances in the wine based on the growing season and Mother Nature and the chemistry in the grapes. But. But this wine's pretty consistent from year to year.

But I literally just picked the glass up to my nose, smell alone smell. And I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes. Just like excited and nostalgic and just a magical moment.

Which at first you're like, oh, do I want to smell and taste beeswax. I actually love beeswax notes in wine. It's super interesting and comforting, almost like a candle in a good way.

Not a stinky, smelly candle, natural candle. And then he talks about how it has a creamy texture but then bright acidity.

Great balance between power and finesse that I think sums up what I love about Viognier and specifically Pride Mountain Viogniers is that power and finesse. You don't always get that tension in wine where you get both of those things and that's what makes this wine so delicious.

So now you know how to pronounce it, why you should be drinking it, and in my opinions, one of the best ones for you to be drinking and how to get your hands on it. Again, I'll put the link in the show notes.

But very simply, if you're not a member of Pride Mountain Vineyards mailing list, do this before April 15th. Do this now or even after is fine.

But sign up on pridewines.com to be on the mailing list, which just means you get notified when things are available and you can have access. And then it's up to you if you want to place an order either by calling or awesome team. Many of us will answer the phone there and take your order.

Or you can also order online once you are on the mailing list because you'll have a login and a password when you taste this wine.

Email me nikkiipwithnikki.com Email me anytime, but I want to hear what you think, especially if this is something new for you, send me your thoughts, send me your pairings and I cannot wait for you to taste one of my most favorite favorite wines on the planet. And as you can guess, my other favorite wine on the planet. Yep, I'm biased. It's the one that I make which is Solevato and our Sangiovese.

So in a perfect meal, in a perfect world, we're starting with some cheese and some fish appetizers and Viognier and then we have a beautiful cacio e pepe pasta, hitting the table with a little Sangiovese.

And remember, for being a podcast listener with my small production wine, 200 case production of Solbato, use the discount code pod listener and I will give you 10% off your order of Solevato. I've told you two beautiful wines to get. It is up to you to make it happen.

These are also two great wines for you to open when you invite your friends over for Share and Pair Sundays.

And if you're not in the loop on this exciting new campaign that just started last week, go back to last week's episode of Sip with Nikki and I'll give you the scoop on Share and Pair Sundays. I cannot wait for you to join next week. And whatever you do between now and then, I hope that you sip well.