One of the best things about living in a “city in the forest” is watching how beautifully spring blooms in Atlanta. The weather is warm, the sun is out, and festival season is underway.
There are plenty of quaffable white wines to sip and cool, chillable reds to pour. Spring also ushers in new rosé vintages, with 2023 vintages starting to hit shelves.
Atlanta-based wine consultant Whitney Blue has her eye on a few bottles people should be drinking as we head into the warmer months.
Blue, whose hospitality career includes stints at Murphy’s, Purple Corkscrew, VinoTeca, and Prime Wine and Spirits, loves Portuguese and Portuguese-inspired wines. Currently, she’s recommending high-acid white wines and aromatic rosés, including Fio Drink Me NatCool Mosel riesling. While from Germany, the wine has a heavy Portuguese influence.
Iconic Portuguese winemaker Dirk Niepoort and his sons partnered with the Kettern family in Germany, producing a wine that showcases the craftsmanship of slow, thoughtfully made riesling. Both families believe in an ethos rooted in sustainability, environmental responsibility, and altruistic wine production. Together, their goal was to focus on a fresh take on classic, well-known grape varietals, and in this case, churn out a unique twist on riesling. The Drink Me NatCool Mosel riesling features big aromatics on the nose and notes of citrus pith, stone fruit, and a touch of honey on the palate.
As for rosé, Blue loves the 2023 Arnot-Roberts Touriga Nacional. Touriga Nacional is native to Portugal and revered as one of the country’s finest grapes. While this is a Portuguese grape, the wine from Arnot-Roberts is produced in Healdsburg, California. This appellation has the perfect terroir and climate for such Old World grapes to grow, which require cool temperatures in the morning and a lot of sun exposure during the day.
The current vintage has a strawberry pink hue, boasts big aromatics, and offers ripe peach and melon notes, making the wine a solid choice for spring.
“It’s basically Beyonce’s ‘Sweet*Honey*Buckiin’ in a glass,’” Blue said of why she loves this rosé so much.
With Mother’s Day and summer on the horizon, also consider Day Wines’ 2023 vintage of Mamacita. This cheerful sparkler by Brianna Day produced in Applegate Valley, Oregon, is a blend of Vermentino and Muscat grapes. It’s super bright, fresh, and crushable with high-toned citrus notes like blood orange and grapefruit and racing acidity with a ton of salinity. Like Niepoort and Kettern, Day focuses on producing thoughtful organic wines for her portfolio.
For other chillable reds, try one of former French Laundry sommelier Andre Hueston Mack’s wines from his new line: Maison Noir. Mack left the restaurant industry to pursue wine-making and ended up in Oregon and Washington. The fan favorite from his new line is the Bastardo Jackson, made from Trousseau Noir grapes. This wine is an homage to the Alpine vintages found in the Jura region and carries notes of red berries and rustic earthiness on the palate.
All of the wines mentioned above are available for purchase at VinoTeca in Inman Park. VinoTeca hosts tastings daily. Three wines are included in the tasting for $15 per person.
