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Sakonnet Vineyards Vidal Blanc: Wine from Right Here, at Om in Cambridge

Posted 08/27/2008 at 12:50 PM by Cathy

(Originally published March 10, 2008)

Restaurant Week started in Boston today and Om on Winthrop Street in Cambridge was my first stop.

It wasn't going well.

The bartender had no idea which wines on the list were made by women, and the sommelier or anyone else who'd know either weren't working tonight or weren't available.

So I took a stab in the dark. I wanted something white, since I'd be having Om's chick pea fries and lobster won tons. Choices by the glass were very limited but one in particular caught my eye, a 2006 Sakonnet Vidal Blanc from Rhode Island.

I'd had one other wine from Rhode Island, a Riesling from a vineyard near Newport, at the Coast Line Grille in Manchester-by-the-Sea. I remember the flavor distinctly because, from the very first sip, it carried its own punctuation: grape juice! Unadulterated by any hint of alcohol whatsoever, this Riesling wins the prize as the fruitiest expression of a grape-based beverage I've ever had except, perhaps, for Welch's white grape juice itself.

On that day, sitting outside in the summertime with a first-course spinach salad, the Rhode Island Riesling was just the thing. It was fun and unpretentious, lighthearted and easy.

Tonight my wine would need a little more substance, a little more courage if it were to hold its own inside Om's very hip, too-cool-for-words lounge.

Fortunately the Sakonnet Vidal Blanc has some backbone. It's refreshing and lively, sure, but it's also assertive on the nose (highlighted by pure green apple) and it's structured by an acidity that's almost twangy. In a good way.

My general impression of this Vidal Blanc is that it is wholly itself, that is, it's a white grape well-suited to Rhode Island's cool maritime climate. It's comfortable in its own skin.

The Vidal Blanc also partnered exceptionally well with the food. The chick pea fries were served with yogurt and tamarind sauces, and the wine complemented the tang of the tamarind particularly well. The dipping sauce for the lobster won tons had a heat at its core that was cooled, appealingly, by the wine.

I came home tonight to find that Elaine Bernier is the winemaker at Sakonnet Vineyards. She's worked there for more than 20 years and brings a "consensus" approach to winemaking.

The consensus from our table tonight? Keep doing what you're doing. It's working just fine.

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About the Author

Cathy Huyghe
Cathy Huyghe

Cathy Huyghe writes about drinking wine every day in the Boston area. She finds the quirky characters, the after-hours events, and the surprising stories that make up Boston's vibrant local wine scene. But no matter where she is, what she's doing, or who she's with, she mostly just wants to drink the stuff.

Her first restaurant gig was at Chez Panisse, when she knocked on the kitchen's back door and asked if she could work there. She's also worked for Jean-Pierre Vigato in Paris and Thomas Keller in Las Vegas. She went to graduate school at Harvard (twice), and her writing has run in Boston magazine, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Edible Boston, and on Nevada Public Radio and Grist.org.

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