Ever since Laurent Fadanni and Melissa Giesbrecht released their first vintage of wine from Whispering Horse in 2017, they have attracted quite a devoted fan base, often selling out of their small lot wines very quickly.
This Saturday, June 26th, Whispering Horse will be releasing two new wines, their first vintage of La Crescent WILD and the 2020 L’Acadie WILD. Visit www.whisperinghorsewinery.com for more information about this release.
I am looking forward to trying these new releases, but in the meantime I enjoyed pairing the 2019 Palomino WILD with some tasty dishes.
2019 Palomino WILD $24.99
Palomino WILD is a blend of 67% Pinot Gris and 33% L’Acadie. The grapes were sustainably grown at Whispering Horse in Yarrow, BC. The Pinot Gris and L’Acadie were processed separately. The grapes were gently crushed and destemmed prior to spontaneous fermentation. The Pinot Gris spent 36 hours on the skins, producing the beautiful, pale, peach hue pictured above. Both the Pinot Gris and L’Acadie spent 9 months sur-lie in stainless steel tanks prior to blending and bottling. The wine was bottled unfined and unflitered.
On the nose there are notes of yellow grapefruit pith, stoney minerality, hints of gooseberry and grassy herbaceousness. This is a dry, medium bodied wine with medium+ acidity. The palate offers pink grapefruit, underripe strawberries, underripe nectarines and nettle, with a salty, herbaceous, medium finish. Palomino is a crisp and refreshing wine with a mouthwatering finish that keeps you coming back for another sip.
Featured Recipes
I paired the 2019 Palomino WILD with a green mango salad, shrimp cakes and a lemongrass curry. This wine worked well with several ingredients in these dishes, including the cilantro, fish sauce, ginger, lemongrass, lime and mint.
I used Bon Appétit’s recipe for Green Mango Salad, which can be found here. If you are going to make this recipe to pair alongside the 2019 Palomino WILD, I would recommend using only one Thai chili and going easy on the shallot (I used less than a quarter of one large shallot).
I sourced my recipe for Vietnamese-Style Crispy Shimp Cakes from the New York Times; this recipe can be found here. These shrimp cakes paired very well with Palomino. The only change I made to this recipe was to coat the cakes in panko bread crumbs instead of dusting with corn starch before frying.
I also sourced a recipe for Lemongrass and Coconut Curry from Bon Appétit; the recipe can be found here. As this wine has only 1.04g/L of residual sugar, I would recommend keeping the heat in this curry mild. If you are wanting to add some protein to the curry, I think tofu would make a great addition.