In my real world job – not this fun world of writing about
wine-related experiences – I go to England at least once a year.  The company that I work for has its
headquarters just outside of Oxford, in what used to be the milking shed of a
farm.  Actually, the farm is still
there, next to the office, and it’s pretty typical to hear roosters and other
livestock throughout the workday. 
It’s a bit isolated though, so for lunch we usually get a sandwich from
the catering truck that comes around. 
And my favorite sandwich from the truck is curry chicken salad. 

(As a side note, I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for the little catering trucks.  When I was young, Cousin Louie drove one, and occasionally we would get to help him count coins from his day’s business.  Not much, but then it doesn’t take much to make a 6 year old kid happy.)  

Last week I decided to try to replicate that sandwich for
dinner.  I just used canned chicken
breast meat, plus mayonnaise, spicy mustard, curry powder, chopped peanuts,
celery, green onions, cilantro (probably not in the English version, but I love
the flavor) and raisins.  Turned
out pretty darn good.  Lori made a
berry salad with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries to go with it.  And we opened a nice bottle of wine (2
paragraphs into this, and I finally get to the wine!), a 2008 West
Wines Dry Creek Valley Viognier.

We visited West Wines last March, where we met Katarina
Bonde and
Bengt Akerlind, the owners of West Wines.  Katarina and Bengt are originally from Sweden, which goes a
long way to explaining why in 2010 the West Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005 was
the first American wine ever served at the Nobel Prize Banquet.  We really enjoyed the atmosphere at the
winery and tasting room, and enjoyed the wines.  They only make Chardonnay, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon and
a Cab blend, so they’re pretty focused. 
We walked away having purchased Chardonnay, Viognier and Cabernet
bottles. 

The curry chicken salad and Viognier was a really nice
pairing, as it turned out.  The
West Wines Viognier was all we remembered it to be:  nice floral nose, bright flavors on entry, medium body and
just a bit of acid on the finish. 
Worked really well with the curry-based flavors. 

So now we’re eyeing the Chardonnay and Cab in the cellar,
and thinking about when to open those!

L’Chaim,

Larry Lapides