J Newman Wine Revue

I rarely order white wines at restaurants for the main wine with the meal.  I suppose that is because I generally get more excited about red wines and often lean towards meals that are more red wine friendly when I am out to eat.  It is not that I don’t like whites; I often drink them, but generally either a glass with an appetizer or some bubbly as an aperitif if its a celebratory dinner of some sort.  However, as I try to avoid being stuck in ruts, I found myself out to dinner last night with my lovely wife as we try to squeeze in a few more “date” nights before our daughter is born in a week.  We went to BISL, a local farm to table joint here in Bozeman with Asian flavor flares added to many dishes.  The food certainly lends itself to whites and as the end of summer approaches I found myself drawn towards a halibut with creamy corn and summer squash.  The rich, ripe flavor of summer corn won’t be around much longer so I decided to go for it.  This dish of course doesn’t lend itself well to a red, so I went with a white Burgundy, the 2015 Puligny-Montrachet from Domaine Hubert Bouzereau-Gruere.  This is a chardonnay for those of you not familiar with Burgundy and it was excellent.  I also rarely order chardonnay as many of them can have too much oak that obscures the wine for me or too ripe and lacking in acidity (especially from California…).  This wine however was excellent.  A pure and elegant version of Puligny-Montrachet (which in my opinion is the best village for white wines in all of Burgundy) the nose was filled with pear, peach, and red apple fruits, hints of hazelnut and almond, stony mineral notes, and just a hint of lemon and wood spice.  The palate was beautifully balanced with excellent acidity to provide energy and very good depth for a village level wine.  It finished in lovely harmony leaving lingering notes of pear and hazelnut.  It was thoroughly enjoyable and made me wonder why I don’t create or eat meals centered around white wines more often… So if you rarely do so, give it a shot.  Especially if you can find a nice Puligny!