Gentil Hugel - a pleasant white wine from Alsace.

Lately I've been drinking some tasty and inexpensive white wine from Alsace, which you might remember as the place Tomi Ungerer comes from.

This is called Gentil "Hugel" - by itself a fun multilingual mix, like Alsace/Elsaß itself. A link where links do well:

http://www.hugel.com/en/

The web site is actually pretty charming, with things like pictures of the hotel in Macau where they went to (presumably) sell wine.

Anyhow, this wine was imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons - a pretty reliable importer, in my experience. The single bit of marketing copy that really struck me as true (from the hugel.com site) is the description of the wine as grapey.

Yes, it's very grapey. It tastes like Autumn. I recommend it. I paid twelve bucks US.

Villa Teresa Prosecco Veneto

This is a yummy, light, organic Italian prosecco that's perfect for breakfast, or a light lunch, or the hell of it. It's from the Veneto of course, a great place for white wines and Hemingway. It has exactly the "strohgelb" color advertised to its Germanic consumers, which is to say the crisp airy yellow of straw. And in another rare example of wine advertising being spot-on, it does indeed smell of unripe apples. (By the way, Germans are crazy about prosecco so it's normal that the German blurb is better-written than the English.) I had half a bottle with my huevos con chorizo today, and am finishing it off whilst surfing the net. Highly recommended. Cost: $10 at the corner store. The bottle has a nice shape to it, though oddly enough I had to use a screw to remove the cork: the top bit was insufficient to get a good grip. If you're buying a bottle late at night to drink on the street, or some sunny morning on your way to the park, factor that in. I'm sure it could be opened without a corkscrew, but it wouldn't be easy. Apparently the same folks make a Pinot Grigio, which is no surprise considering the region. I'll keep an eye out for it. Unfortunately I only have phone-cam pics as my proper camera is at the office. And here, in "fair use" mode, is a bottle shot I snagged online.