Many restaurants in Paris have taken to pairing Condrieu with Foie Gras.  The “umami” texture of the Condrieu plays with the richness of the foie gras, and while Condrieu does not have high acid to cut through the fat, something about the way it finishes so bone-rattlingly dry freshens everything up.

Click on the picture below to spend a few minutes exploring the Northern Rhone Valley!  You will need Google Earth to run the file, which takes about 10 seconds to download and install, here.

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A Spanish Spring Value

Wine of the Week: The 2010 Gaba do Xil Godello is among the best from Telmo Rodriguez’s Galicia vineyard.
By Elin McCoy | Monday, 30 April 2012 | 05:36

Elin McCoy’s Wine of the Week

2010 Telmo Rodriguez Gaba do Xil Godello Valdeorras

Price: $16
Region: Valdeorras, Spain
Grape: 100 percent Godello
Alcohol: 13.5 percent
Serve with: Seafood like scallops, mussels and lobster, vegetable pastas

At the Vintus Wines spring portfolio tasting in New York City last week, I found a surprising number of potential wines of the week. Spanish winemaker Telmo Rodriguez was pouring several less-than-$20 candidates that really impressed me, especially this delicious white, the 2010 Gaba do Xil Godello from the region of Valdeorras. With aromas of orange peel and flowers, crisp flavors of chamomile, stones and fresh pears, and a full, round texture, it’s a tasty, versatile value that seemed to sing of spring.

Over the past 25 years, the still incredibly young-looking Rodriguez (he’s now 50) has emerged as one of the world’s most interesting and pioneering winemakers, on a mission to rediscover Spain’s best terroirs, its old abandoned vineyards, bush-trained vines and neglected indigenous grapes. He drives madly around the country checking on vineyards and wineries in different regions, from which he makes 20 wines. Recently he also took over at his family winery, Rioja’s Bodegas Remelluri, where he grew up.

Godello is a white variety native to Galicia, a region in the country’s northwest. There, in 2004, Rodriguez and his partner Pablo Eguzkiza purchased an ancient vineyard on steep granite terraces at an elevation of 1,500 feet in the town of Santa Cruz in the tiny Valdeorras area, where Romans once grew vines. They saw growers still employing the kind of pruning tools used in the Middle Ages and became convinced of the area’s potential to make serious wines. The label features iconic bridges found in Santa Cruz.

In his vineyard there, Rodriguez focuses on the Mencia (red) and Godello, farms the grapes biodynamically, handpicks them and ferments using mostly native yeast. All that helps give the wines character and authenticity.

You won’t go wrong with just about any wine made by Telmo Rodriguez — he seems to pour as much passion into his cheapest wine as he does into the most expensive. But the Gaba do Xil Godello is just perfect for spring and summer.

The article continues: “In his opening comments at the seminar, Philippe Guigal spoke with amusement about how he reached his decision to put on a tasting at Hospice du Rhone. He and John Alban were in an elevator in France, leaving a venue after yet more discussions. Alban reached over and pushed the emergency stop button. “We’re not leaving the elevator,” Alban told him, “until we come to an agreement on when you’re coming to Hospice du Rhone.” Smiling, Philippe said, “I think he may have been serious.”  It’s almost unbelievable. How does Philippe Guigal wind up in Paso Robles pouring hundreds of bottles of wine that people are on a waiting list to purchase for huge amounts of money? And he’s there giving them away and talking about them at Hospice du Rhone. Just that phenomenon right there show’s there’s a certain lunacy to all this.”

To read the full article click here.