If I’m thirsty, I’m thirsty. But with drinking wine, I state the obvious when I say that there is so much more to it than just thirst. When I mix and mingle with wine as my ally, it’s as if I’m meeting some very basic human needs… for vitality, spirit, and release. Wine becomes an elixir and quenches my need for love, to savor warmth and my craving for liberation. Wine opens my palate to richness and the finer but humbler realities of life. And to the reality of my thirst for everything finally satisfied.

That said, I can’t help but be ponderous in my drinking white wine. And my husband, who always chooses red, can’t either. I might’ve earned something of a reputation for being (amiably) scornful when I appraise a new yet displeasing wine. But when it’s good, I can’t help but close my eyes in “felicità.” I’m a sensualist. And for me, wine is just part of the art of love. 

And so I lovingly offer this little present: the prettiest little list of white wines, that in the company of great friends and family, have been a prism to refract all of life’s basic human needs:

-Wine Art Estate Plano Malagousia 2021

-Domaine Eden

-Chardonnay 2019 (grown on the north facing slope of the Saratoga Gap) 

-Chassagne-Montrachet Bouchard Aîné et Fils

-Granbazán Albariño 

-Condrieu Stéphane Ogier

-Jurançon sec 

-Mosse 2020

-Belondrade Lurton 

-El Dorado de Murrieta (a rare simultaneously red and white wine)

-Godello

-Rafael Palacios As Sortes Val Do Bibei 

-Xavier Weisskopf Le Rocher des Violettes Montlouis Cuvée Touche Mitaine Sec Loire, France 2021

-Gaja Ca’ Marcanda “Vistamare”

-Marques de Riscal Limousine 

-Basa Rueda

-Valserrano Rioja blanco