Wine of the week: Pasa A Paso 2009

The Wine Curmudgeon needed two wines to go with the paella he was making (and which didn't turn out well at all, a story for another time). I knew which red I wanted, and which will show up here as a wine of the week one of these days. I wasn't sure about the white; all I knew was that I wanted something that I had not tried before and that it should cost $10.

Which is how the Paso ($10, purchased) ended up in my shopping cart. I didn't know the producer, Bodegas Volver, but I knew the importer, Jorge Ordonez, who was one of the first to being quality Spanish wine to the U.S. The price was right, and the Paso was made with verdejo, which makes seafood-friendly wines that are usually more expensive.

Call it wine-buying roulette, and yet another example of why wine is so much fun. I took a chance and won. The Paso was everything I hoped it would be and a little more -- fresh and lively with lots of citrus-style acid and stone fruit flavors. It wasn't as complex as a pricier verdejo, but it wasn't supposed to be.

This is exactly the kind of wine that I wish more California producers appreciated: Well-priced and well-made, and just the thing to drink with dinner when you want wine but don't want to spend a lot of money or endure wine-pairing hell.

Comments

[burnsey]

Suggestion for the paella. Use Spanish smoked paprika, trust me, this will make your paella come alive. It has to be the smoked paprika. It may be hard to find, but worth it. I also use it in my black beans.
Hard to beat the Spanish white wines in the summertime.

[Jeff Siegel]

Sadly, my paealla failure had nothing to do with that sort of thing. I had saffron I brought back from Spain, paprika, etc. It was my lack of skill and experience with such a difficult dish.

[bburnsey]

There is an order of incorporation that needs to be followed, and something about a very large, shallow dish, so more of the rice can caramelize. Don't give up, it took me a number of times to get a decent dish, but I am now confident enough to serve it to guest.

[Jeff Siegel]

Why the paella didn't work is a long story. One of the few things I did right was put the ingredients in in the right order. I'll stick to jambalaya. It's easier and just as good.