The Contestants

Let me explain.  This was another Trader Joe’s wine adventure, but it was a lot more fun than I had anticipated. It began with a bargain bottle of Newton Chardonnay (that is not a typo), and culminated in a competition between the Central Coast and  Sonoma/Napa.  The wines were 2008 Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Chardonnay – Central Coast and 2008 Newton Chardonnay – Sonoma/Napa.

You all know that I’m a Central Coast gal, and this tasting was particularly challenging.

I had great fun!

First, a little about Chardonnay and me.  Many eons ago I had the opportunity to taste a really good Chardonnay.  It was rich, luscious, loaded with fruit, buttery and wonderful.  Because I was a relative wine newbie at the time, I thought that was normal for Chard and couldn’t contain my disappointment the next time I tasted one and found it to be, well, kind of like lemonade laced with apple juice.  It was hardly the rich and wonderful wine I remembered. Unfortunately, that became my experience through the years as I would try it from time to time, still seeking that ethereal Chardonnay experience.  But it was lemonade. Every single time.  So I became an ABC (Anything But Chard) gal. It was quite a few years before I found the Chard character my palate desired and, as I discovered, you had a spend a little money to get it.  Nowadays – whether it’s because you really don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy a good Chard or because my palate has matured – I enjoy it on a fairly regular basis.

Yup. Me. Liking white wines. Who’da thunk?

Rather than read lots of stuff about how wonderful (or not) these wines were, enjoy the videos!  I liked this wine tasting review so much that I may do more.  If you’d like that, just let me know.

I try to plan these reviews carefully.  Really.  So it’s always a nice surprise when I snag something out of the cooler that turns out to be much better than I’d anticipated or remembered.  I bought two bottles last year, and I believe the Wineaux Guy and I drank one sometime during the summer.  So this bottle has been resting for a year and is one of the few white wines I have right now.  In fact, I do believe I have more Rosés than whites! I need to check on the Wine Cellar page to verify.

At any rate, I found some wonderful flounder fillets at the local Smith’s market and snagged them immediately. You can see the recipe here on Grapes N Grub (still under construction, more or less). I knew I wanted a white wine to go with the recipe because flounder is such a light and delicate fish and felt that even my Villicana Vin Rosé would be a little too much for such a delicate fish. Unfortunately I’m out of daily drinker whites, so I had to break out one of my better wines.

The 2007 Kiamie White Kuvée is a serious wine in spite of the kitschy spelling of cuvée.  A blend of 65% Viognier and 35% Rousanne , it has seen oak, but unlike many Viognier and Viognier blends, it is most definitely not a Napa Chard wannabe.  The color is clear and golden and has enough body to lumber around the glass.  This is where the comparison to Chardonnay ends.

Fresh apple, pear, a touch of honeydew, and a bit of early morning by the beach (don’t ask – long story) greet your nose.  Other melon nuances and a definite overtone of minerality also surface.

The mouthfeel is lush, and the white fruits predominate.  The finish displays the minerality of the wine.  I wish it had a touch more acidity FOR THIS DISH but it has a good and bracing acidity on its own.

Generally when I prepare something picatta style, I prefer to have an Oregon-style pinot noir as it pairs beautifully with whatever meat and the capers, butter, and wine.  I’m not so sure I would drink a Pinot with this, however, because of the texture of the fish.  Salmon, on the hand, is a different story altogether.

But I digress.

I found myself having an extra glass or two because it is a good drinking wine and very refreshing. A good buy at $24.00, it is currently sold out on the Kiamie website, but may still be available through the tasting room in Paso Robles or through other retailers.

There you have it! I hope that you get to stop by the Kiamie tasting room in downtown Paso Robles, so that you can enjoy some of their other wines as well.  It is a new winery and came highly recommended by DeDee of Wine Tasting Journals in Paso.  Her recommendation did not disappoint.

My rating – Not quite up to George Clooney level, but still pretty nice!

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This is a repeat of one of my favorite posts from last year.  I was having a bad day and decided to share my opinion about stuff.  Surprise, right?  Enjoy this blast from the (not too distant) past!

For whatever reason, I’m feeling particularly cranky and curmudgeonly (yes, that’s a word) today and feel like sharing my opinion – and I always have one – on different wine stuff. If you have a pet topic that you don’t want to see kicked in the teeth, then read no further. If you’re like me and have a morbidly sick curiosity, continue on.

Corks

Thanks to those who sent great ideas on things to do with corks. Cork, being a natural product with all kinds of potential, has the capacity of being a lot of things! It is the best closure for wine, stelvin notwithstanding. Of course, you can do all kinds of stuff with screwcaps, such as …. uhhh….. Well, anyway, they make great closures for soda pop, Boone’s Farm, Arctic Vines, MD20/20, and wines from New Zealand. Or anything else you’re going to open, pour, and not care about the ambiance. If you don’t care about ambiance, then be my guest. Go unscrew.

As for me, I prefer to use something that is not only classy, but also will actually become a part of the ground again if it’s thrown away. No recycling to keep it out of landfills needed. Stelvin screwcaps aren’t so “pop and pour” so to speak. They require that the plastic liner be removed from the metal cap in order to be reused after recycling. I’m thinking that folks are finding that it’s just easier to toss them into landfills.

Not green at all.

The families in Portugal are working like crazy to make sure that their cork is free of TCA, and the improvements have been astounding. There are companies (more on that on a later post) that guarantee that their 100% cork products will not cause TCA contamination.

So I prefer cork because it’s just, well, *better.* For the environment, for business, and for my romantic evenings.

Unoaked Chardonnay

While there are a few unoaked Chards that are actually quite good, it’s a wine that’s still pretty much in the novelty category for me. Frankly, if I want a nice unoaked white wine, I’ll grab a Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier (one that’s made correctly), Riesling, or any other of a number of truly delicious whites that were never meant to be oaked.

In my opinion, Chardonnay was made for oak. It’s pretty hard to top a well-made Chardonnay that’s been kissed with just enough oak (“just enough” being in the eye of the beholder, of course) to impart that characteristic creaminess and smoothness that’s made Chard the number one white wine in the US for decades.

Question: In Burgundy, are the winemakers even allowed to make white Burgundies without oak? I await your responses.

I will admit that some Napa Chards have exceeded the idea of balance in favor of the overdone (“What was that vintage? 2006 Louisville Slugger? Yum!”) With that being said, I’d rather have an overoaked Chard than one that tastes like lemonade laced with pineapple juice. I want WINE, not a melted popsicle.

Stemless Wine Glasses

I look at stemless wine glasses as a CSI lesson. Want to see fingerprints, epithelials, body oils, and sweat? Then just take a look at a stemless! Made for forensic education, it sucks as a serious wine glass.

A couple of years ago, I met with a group and brought a beautiful Sauvignon Blanc to share. Unfortunately, the only glasses available were stemless. So during the course of the hour (or so), I witnessed the evolution of the lovely, crisp, slightly chilled Sauvignon Blanc to a warmed-up, flabby shadow of itself. The heat of my hand had turned it from a wine that should be drunk chilled to one that was, in a word, uninteresting. I was quite annoyed. Okay. *More* than annoyed. I was pissed.

While these glasses are great for spirits such as Scotch or brandy, they do a great disservice to wine. Of course, if you’re chugging your wine down without tasting it, then I guess it doesn’t matter. Otherwise, why bother risking damaging a good wine? If someone can give me a good reason for using these (a *good* reason, not a *convenient* reason), I’ll post it here. Promise.

Where the Hell’re the 375s?

Okay, this is less of a rant than a request. And maybe somebody can tell me why this is not practical.

I live with my roomie, Cooper (Wineaux Guy lives in California ) which means that when I want wine with my dinner, I’m stuck with either opening up a full-size 750 or having a beer. And, after all, this *is* Vegas Wineaux, not Vegas Beer Garden (oh…wait…) I would love nothing better than to be able to pop the cork on a 375 to have with my meals, especially on those wines that are reasonably priced (cheap) and just don’t last past a day or two, no matter what preservation methods I use. Or how about when he wants a red wine and I want a rosé? Then there’re those evenings when there’s company who will ONLY drink white wine and I’m serving steak. Gimme a Cab.

So is this feasible? Or am I dreamin’?

I feel so much better now! I still have more stuff to rant about, but they will have to wait until I have the rant page back up on the new (improved!) website.

Thanks for listening.

Stay tuned!

For those of you who may be wondering, Cooper’s my Bernese Mountain Dog. He doesn’t care if a wine has a cork or stelvin closure. With no opposable thumbs, he can’t open any of them.  And he doesn’t drink.