We weren't familar with Viognier wines, but they were shelved near the Rieslings and the description sounded interesting, so we picked up a bottle for $6.99. We chilled it and had it with our salmon dinner the other night.

First impressions were good. The aroma was nice when we uncorked the bottle and when we poured it. However, it smelled better than it tasted. Really, it had almost no flavor in the mouth, only in the nose. Drinking it was like drinking water from a glass that used to have vodka in it. Not very impressive.

However, after we let it sit a while, and it warmed up, more of the flavor came out. The flavors still weren't distinct, but they were better. Also, a glass on the second day after opening seemed better too.

I think we might give Viognier another try some time, but probably not this particular one.

We wanted some wine with dinner tonight, so Nicole stopped at the grocery store on her way home (we may be wine snobs, but we're cheap wine snobs). She picked out a 2005 California Chenin Blanc from Beringer. It was on sale for $3.99. We'd never tried the Chenin Blanc, but figured for $4, if it was crap we could put it in some pasta sauce or something. Turns out it was quite good.

Drier than the Reislings we usually drink, it had an edge that made it go very well with the spicy dish we had for dinner. It didn't have any sparkle, so that worked well with the flavors as well. It was fairly mild in flavor, it tasted like wine, not much in the way of overtones or notes like some of the other wines we like.

This was a very good wine to have with a very flavorful meal, as it doesn't compete, only accents. At full price ($8?) it's very good. And for $4... you can't beat it.