I suppose pairing wine with a mood is sort of like pairing wine and food, where you can either complement the atmosphere, like a melty and indulgent oaked Viognier for a broken heart – or contrast – like a taut and high-acid sparkling Riesling to slap you in the face and tell you to get your shit together. There are classic pairings, though, like oysters and Muscadet, and pairings like Champagne and merriment weave together well enough that their sales correlate with the average American income in the following year; wines like vintage port seem fitting as a pensively cerebral way of celebrating a journey involving arduous efforts.

What a surprise, then, that this wine from northeast Italy was an unintentional complement to the previous night, providing cologne-like florals, gentle intrigue, but a nice level of restraint.

Keber 2015 Bianco Collio (Collio, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy) Aug 2017. $33.50 USD.
Medium lemon colour. Scented at the forefront with something like dried white flowers – like a hint of cologne, or something slightly spicy and brooding that join the undertones of nectarine and peach kernel. Creamy on the palate with a hint of a nice tongue-enveloping texture and flavours of more peach kernel, lemon curd, and citrus pith. Nice level of restraint minerally restraint. A blend of Friulano, Malvasia Istriana, Ribolla Gialla.