Hello and welcome to our inaugural White Wine Wednesday post! Since there are quite a few people in the world who aren't red wine drinkers, we decided to dedicate one day a week to celebrating what's best about white wines. On our radar this week is the Caliza “Kissin' Cousins,” (scandalous, I know!) which I discovered a few years ago when I was working at winery on the Central Coast. For me, the perfect white is something that has a little bit of stone fruit flavor (aka peach and apricot, aka fruits with stones in the middle), and bonus points if it’s got some honey flavors. This one covers all the bases.

I went to grad school in Alabama, and if you're not from the south (like me), it can be difficult to imagine exactly how hot the summers are. The best way I can describe it is like being trapped in a bubble of heat- everything is kind of humid and you basically wait until the sun goes down and it becomes slightly less hot (emphasis on "slightly"). I vividly remember arriving at school in August, getting out of the car for the first time, and thinking: "I've made a huge mistake." However, summers also mean more sun, more swimming, and for us, more white wine.

To beat the Alabama heat, my roommates and I went to Walmart and bought an inflatable pool. It was shaped like a zebra, and we used to drag it out on our driveway on hot days and drink wine with our feet in the pool. Truth: while I’ll probably never be cooler than I was while sitting in an inflatable pool for children, there is nothing like a cold glass of white wine on a blazing hot summer day and this one from Caliza is perfection.

Caliza is Spanish for the word limestone, and is located in Paso Robles, on the Central Coast of California. On the Central Coast there’s a lot of limestone in the soil, which is one of the reasons the wines are so unique. One of the other things that makes the Central Coast special is its location in the “Templeton Gap.” This location means that temperatures can fluctuate almost 50 or 60 degrees throughout the day, so wines can vary hugely from vineyard to vineyard. Caliza’s grapes come from a 20-acre, south-facing hillside area, which gives their wines a complex, subtle taste. They also use sustainable farming practices, which makes you feel even better about drinking it.

I actually first tried this wine during a bachelorette party (I know… be jealous) but it was the first place we went, so I’m just going with my instincts that it is actually good (JK I know it’s good I’m drinking it right now). Color-wise, this one’s a really pretty gold color, kind of like one of those stock photos of wheat that people use as their work computer backgrounds. When we were passing this wine around, we decided that it smelled “flowery,” and finally landed on honeysuckle. After tasting it, it’s got hints of apples, apricots, and honey. All around a great, drinkable white.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Summertime wine, no question, but like, classy summer wine. Perfect for poolside, outside, or whatever kind of -side suits your fancy.