This delicious, nicely balanced white, grown on 38-year-old vines at San Juan Vineyard, Paso Robles, was recently released. Stainless-steel fermentation retained its lovely aromas and flavors of sweet pear, melon, grapefruit, and an impressive minerality. It’s quite tasty on its own and well-suited to such dishes as goat cheese and fruit salad with a rice vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, lemon shrimp risotto, and chicken or pork chile verde. It’s available at the Santa Margarita tasting room and online at ancientpeaks.com and will soon be released in local stores; only $12 retail.
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This article appears in Dec 31, 2009 – Jan 7, 2010.