Bartier Bros 2016 Semillon

Photo credit: me

In honour of my favourite aunt's birthday I'm writing about a bottle of white wine (for once). She loves white wine, primarily dry whites that come in boxes and she is also kind of my mentor. Okay, maybe not my viticulture mentor, but she's important to me and for that, I'd like to dedicate this post to her.

I also happened to have visited the gorgeous new Bartier Bros winery last summer, where I fell for a bottle of Semillon and promptly forgot about it.  I always bring home bottles of white wine after the Labour Day long weekend and for reasons I don't entirely understand, I have no desire to drink anything but red from September onward.

Cracking open this simple yet sophisticated Semillon brought me right back to their beautiful property in Oliver, BC, sharing wine and local cheese on their patio. The flavour of fresh citrus fruit and just a touch of smokiness made this a great choice for one of my favourite plant-based recipes: garlic Alfredo pasta with roasted Brussels sprouts from Minimalist Baker.

Sure, you could just use inexpensive Pinot Gris leftover after a party you hosted a few weeks ago (I've done it, it was still delicious as all hell), but the general wisdom is, you shouldn't cook with anything you wouldn't drink. It makes sense really, why put subpar wine in your dish, especially if you wouldn't use subpar ingredients. Also, this way you get to drink something you know will pair well with your dish—it's literally one of the ingredients!

So try this dish (and this wine, if you can get your hands on a bottle) for your next Meatless Monday experiment and raise a glass to your favourite aunt—I hope she's also a white wine drinking vegetarian, but if not, that's okay, too.

Cheers!