I've been working on a couple of big projects on the website, so things have been posting a little slower than normal.  I decided that I should take a break from some of my more ambitious endeavors to get out a review of the 2008 Cap-Rock Viognier that I drank this week.

There is a lot of fun stuff to share about this wine.  This wine is produced 100% by grapes grown by 
Bingham Family Vineyards.  I have mentioned that the Binghams are friends of mine in past posts, so I always have fun tasting wines made from their grapes.  Another cool thing about this wine, is that it is the first wine produced in Texas that is labeled as "Made From Organic Grapes".  The Binghams have a history of growing organically, going back to the days when they primarily grew organic cotton.  I'm a big fan of organic farming methods, so this is a fun wine to try out. 

Cap-Rock Winery has a beautiful facility here in Lubbock.  The winery has been producing wine here in West Texas for quite a while, with their first vintage being released in 1992.

I want to start out by saying that I don't drink a lot of Viognier, so I don't have a real wide range of experience with the typical characteristics of this variety.  The first thing that the nose on this wine makes me think of is, apple cider.  I definitely get some apples and a touch of a spice, maybe nutmeg.  There are also some really strong floral components to this wine, primarily honeysuckle stands out, and I also get a touch of apricot.  The mouth on this wine is really creamy, with honey and tropical flavors, and I'm also getting a touch of tangerine.  This is a fairly sweet wine.

This is a really difficult wine for me to review objectively.  Regular readers of the site know that I'm not the biggest fan of sweeter wines, and I don't really have a wide enough range of experience with Viognier to know how this stacks up on varietal characteristics.  I think that a lot of people would probably like this wine quite a bit.  This wine will set you back about $14, which seems like a decent value for this Texas Viognier.  I did try this wine over the course of a few days, and I will say that it was much stronger earlier after opening it.  By the third day I found that I wasn't enjoying it as much, so I would recommend that you drink early, or make sure and use a Vacuvin or similar to keep it fresh.  Overall I think that this wine is worth a try.

Final Grade (1-5) 

Legend –   Skip it   Meh   Worth a Try   Give it a Go   Run Get Some

This Viognier wine allowed me to check off another variety for my Wine Century Challenge.  I now have reviewed 18 of 100 varieties, and have only 82 to go!