Leftover Luck

No picture tonight, sorry folks. Didn't plan on posting this one. However, I realize that I'm not the only unlucky soul out there that's unable to finish up a bottle of wine in a single night (let alone TWO), and so it might be of interest to post about how a wine is holding up two or three nights later in the fridge.

The Havens Albariño has been in the fridge now for three nights. This morning I looked in my fridge and saw I had a half dozen chicken wings that had been thawed for a couple days, and knew it had to be cooked up. So I pulled out the crock pot, placed them in there, poured in about a cup of my many-weeks-old leftover 2006 Mandolina Pinot Grigio, and about a cup and a half of leftover marinara sauce. Topped it off with a few sprigs of parsley, put it on low for 10 hours and tottered off to work.

When I got home, the smell was just incredible - this chicken was ready to go. I originally thought about putting it over angel hair pasta, but it turned out I ran out of that. So I just ate them as-is, with a freshly poured glass of the well-chilled Albariño. Let me tell you, not only has it held up, but I feel it is much better tonight than it was on Monday.

The limey-lemonade flavor is still there, but it's much subdued. There's a greater complexity of flavor to it, and one thing I pulled out was this raw snack-tray vegetables flavor. Like cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots, raw. Take a bite of each, and that's the flavor you get. The nose has improved as well, now bringing with it cantaloupe and honeydew. There's also a touch of new-leather scent, but the citrus scent is still predominant.

I think now, after being opened for a few days and being well chilled, this one bumps up to an 89-90 point wine for me. Chill this wine. It deserves to be well chilled.

On a side note, I mentioned I had the 2006 Mandolina Pinot Grigio leftover in my fridge for many weeks. I honestly don't remember when I opened it, but it may have been close to a month ago now. This one is a white that I know and trust, and don't mind sipping at it slowly and working on other bottles while it just sits there. It holds strong in the fridge for weeks, fantastically. It's still drinkable, although it's declining and is better for cooking with at this point.