Airén is a white varietal native of Spain. It is currently being replaced by other more popular Spanish varietal like Tempranillo, so drink up before it is gone! Interesting note, Airén means lover when pronounced in mandarin!
Smells of flowers and green spice with hints of white peach. It was light, a little metallic, refreshing with abit of softness. There is not much fruit with hints of apricot and and nectarines. It had an odd herbaceous taste with a bitterness at the end. OOo
I had it with a sweet and sour noodle soup, made with sour mustard, tomatoes, pork ribs, carrots etc and vermicelli noodle. It paired very well together and brought out the sweetness and a little spice of the wine (Chinese lover!)! Maybe this is how wine and food pairing were supposed to be? Usually, the food brings out the sour of the wine. Perhaps because this dish is sour itself. Definitely a surprise to me as it has always been difficult (almost dangerous. Recall the Albariño post.) to pair wine with home made Asian food.
This wine is found for $14.99 only on Wineinsider.com it seems. I had gotten a groupon of $25 for $75 worth of wine, if not, it would not have been worth the purchase (could have more fun browsing at trader joes!). They did not have a good selection and the wine they had were pretty unknown. Oh well, at least I get to add Airen to my Quest list and had a good pairing!
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