this heaven gives me migraine

2001 Nigl Reseve Sauvignon Blanc

Notes: I had an earlier vintage of this wine years ago and spent years trying to find it again, which I finally did this last spring. Nigl is well known for Riesling and Gruner Veltliner, but their Sauvignon Blanc is either so unremarkable that it is not bothered with here in the states, or so good that it is all drunk up in Austria and nothing usually gets out this way. In any case, the one I had years ago was the first wine that I'd ever had serious snap on the tongue from CO2 and I remember being in love with it from the first sip. This incarnation of the wine is different from what I remember, but then it is a different vintage and also a bit longer in the tooth than the one I had many years ago (which was only a year or two old).

Clear gold in the glass, this is all about fruit, and smells like it could be the bastard child of Riesling and Gewurztraminer, not Sauvignon Blanc. It's not green at all, but round and rich and full of fruit and floral craziness (think white lilies). Peaches and apricots abound in the nose, along with some warm spices like nutmeg and ginger. There are a lot more very ripe peaches and apricots in the mouth, with a toasted cream finish laced with honey. It's funny that I drank this worried that it would be tired and the fruit would be gone, and there is really nothing but fruit going on in here. My only complaint is that it made me very congested! (That was either the sulfites or my endless sinus infection talking, since I had this one back in the throes of on-and-off sinus infections.)

Cost: $42

Overall: B+

2004 Kalyra Sauvignon Blanc

Region: California, US

Composition: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Background: I haven't been drinking much worthy of discussion recently. Partly because I haven't been drinking much, and partly because the drinking I have been doing has been out of desperation. I have had a headache for the last two weeks, see. And when you have a headache, you often don't feel like drinking (or cooking, or reading, or sleeping, or doing anything fun). It's pretty draining, having this headache for so long.

So I have been taking a lot of painkillers, seeing my doctor, taking Vicodin on occasion, and drinking only sometimes when I feel a little okay or get desperate for a break from the headache. I got this bottle out a few days ago after a bottle of the 2003 Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc (I stupidly have no notes for that, but I liked it better than this, and the finish was a little creamier and smoother). It was a hot night and I wanted more zippy clean wine, and given that I had at least half a headache and couldn't commit to a bottle of wine without thinking it might sit for days and go bad before I finished it, I figured I would open something cheap, at least.

Kalyra is located down in the Santa Ynez Valley of California, and most of the grapes they use are from Santa Barbara County. The label is the brainchild of one Michael Brown, who makes wines under the Kalyra label as well as wines made from Australian grapes, which he bottles under the M. Brown label.

(Other than their own website, there isn't a lot of info on Kalyra out there in the world, but I would be remiss by not mentioning that you can see the tasting room in Sideways... it's the one Sandra Oh's character works in.)

Notes: This is pale straw in the glass with chartreuse glints, and has a typical Sauvignon Blanc-y herbaceous green nose with some apple and nectarine, with vanilla undertones. It's mostly tart green apple on the palate, and has some herbal spice in the finish, and a lingering green apple flavor, once you get over that bitter bump. It's a simple Sauvignon Blanc, and fine for hot weather, although not overly remarkable. I did finish the bottle, eventually, so that says something (I have two open and probably bad at this point bottles lying around that I never got around to finishing, and that usually means I didn't like something about them).

Cost: $8 (from Trader Joe's here in SF-- it looks like it is normally about $10-$14)

Overall: B