Sommelier’s pick
Who: Vanessa Treviño Boyd, sommelier for The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa. Having “grown up on the famous grapefruit and homemade tamales” of Mission in the Rio Grande Valley, she “cut her wine teeth” in Chicago during her college years at Northwestern University, then spent 10 years in New York, most of them at the famed Alain Ducasse in the St. Regis Hotel. After several stops in Houston over the past eight years, she signed on with The Houstonian when it reopened following the Hurricane Harvey deluge. She says her list in the hotel’s new Tribute restaurant “reflects the city’s past, present and future favorites.”
What: 2014 Brut Rosé, Sokol Blosser “Blossom Ridge,” EolaAmity Hills, Oregon; 2014 Au Bon Climat, “Los Alamos,” Historic Vineyard Collection Chardonnay, Santa Barbara; 2012 Refosco, La Roncaia, Friuli, Italy
Why: Although Treviño Boyd concedes the Sokol Blosser wines, which date to the planting of the first grapes in 1971, “sit a bit under the radar these days,” she thinks that’s wrong. The Blossom Ridge turned her head at a Houstonian dinner with winemaker Robin Hawley because it has been left on the lees for almost two years before disgorgement. “We bought all we could get after a tasting with my culinary team,” she says. Though “its exact balance between fruit and acid impressed us, it was the soil imprint that that made us smile and nod.” Boyd recommends pairing it with executive chef Neal Cox’s Post Oak wood-grilled oysters that he tops with chorizo butter because the wood allows for the smoke from the chorizo and minerality from the rocky volcanic soils of the region to “make magic.” As for the chardonnay, it’s special first and foremost for Treviño Boyd because famed Au Bon Climat winemaker Jim Clendenen “has been like an uncle to me after I met him years ago,” she says. “Scores of younger winemakers cite him and his work as inspiration and this is a fantastic example why. Jim loves Burgundy and it shows here. The wine looks like chardonnay, smells like chardonnay and has the texture of chardonnay, but — darn it! — I blinded it as Meursault. The melding of the creamy texture in the wine runs consistent with the team’s crab au gratin, two of the chardonnay grape’s best friends.” The La Roncaia, in turn, has spent six years in bottle “allowed for complete integration of the acidity with its huge fruit and dense structure,” Boyd explains. Although made in the appassimento style, with a portion of the grapes dried prior to fermentation, she notes that “the wine is anything but overripe or jammy.” She adds: “It was a true gem buried in a wine vendor’s inventory spreadsheet, so we bought all that was available in Texas.” The perfect pairing at Tribute is the Wagyu short rib.
Prices: $84 for the Sokol Blosser; $16 for a glass and $64 for a bottle of the Au Bon Climat chardonnay; $15 for a glass and $60 for a bottle of the La Roncaia Refosco.