Sipping Suggestion: Salty Salento

WWMD (What would Margaret drink?)

Margaret Pearman is a certified sommelier under the Court of Master Sommeliers and is responsible for curating the award-winning wine list at Charlie’s Coastal Bistro. Here is her sipping suggestion for March:

 Salty Salento

In the wine world the term “terroir” gets thrown around a lot. It is both concrete and abstract at the same time. Terroir is a science used to draw maps that delineate finite areas of production based on soil types. At its essence terroir is the expression of where the wine is grown. 

One cannot actually taste the minerals that come from a Riesling grown on slate hillsides of Germany; even if the wine has a distinct quality of minerality. Salinity is a unique quality I find in wines grown near the coast. 

Among the top of “salty” wines are the Txakoli from the Northern Basque region of Spain, Chardonnay grown on the most Western edge of the Sonoma Coast and my newest find, Verdeca Salento from the Apulia region of Italy. 

The southern region of Apulia juts out into the Adriatic and Ionian seas, surrounded by coastline. Verdeca is not a widely used white grape in the region better known for its production of red Primitivo, but it’s one you shouldn’t miss as spring weather approaches. 

Try Produttori di Manduria Alice Verdeca. It offers flower and light citrus on the nose with a zesty feel in the mouth. This wine expresses its salty surroundings in the best possible way.