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Sonoma Plaza – A Great Way to Sample Sonoma County Wines – Part 2

Welcome back to my series about small-town Sonoma! We spent three days exploring the town’s many wine tasting rooms in search of the perfect chardonnay. If you missed Part One, you can catch up with it here.

With 25 tasting rooms in easy walking distance of each other, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by choices. We loved our first stop at Lake Sonoma Winery, but it was time to find lunch.

Just on the other side of the Plaza, we stopped by the Sonoma Cheese Factory, specializing in authentic barbeque, on 2 Spain Street.

Sonoma Cheese Factory – a great place for lunch

The pulled pork sandwich caught our attention and was just as delicious to eat as it looked on the plate. Sonoma Cheese Factory also offers wine tasting. You can enjoy a flight of wines if you want to sample more of Sonoma’s offerings or just order a glass of local wine with your lunch. A gourmet store as well, this place is perfect for putting together a picnic lunch. In business for over 85 years, it’s easy to see why this place Is so popular.

Next, we headed to Pangloss Cellars Tasting Lounge, at 35 East Napa Street. Housed in a refurbished building built in 1902, the tasting lounge is cavernous. Visitors can relax at the large tasting bar in the back of the room or enjoy food and wine pairings in the vintage arm chairs and couches nested around coffee tables along either side of the room. At the back of the room, facing the tasting bar, is a dramatic wall of wine bottles. The lounge itself is handsomely appointed. Rock walls, rustic timber supports, exposed beams in the ceiling, and wood floors harken back to the building’s original purpose – a general store.

Comfortable seating lines the Pangloss Cellars tasting room

Seated at the tasting bar, we were served by the knowledgeable and gracious, Allisa. The tasting fee was pricey, at $25 per person, but the experience was well worth it! Plan to spend the afternoon here – as the pace is relaxed, educational, and the tasting menu generous. We tried the 2015 Chardonnay made with 30% new French oak. As Allisa, explained, the winemaker doesn’t like “a stick of butter or an overly oaked chardonnay” so he doesn’t do anything to affect the malolactic fermentation. Whatever happens, the winemaker lets it happen naturally. With a clean nose, this chardonnay is bright and crisp but still creamy and lightly oaked. 376 cases produced, the wine retails for $35.

After nearly two hours enjoying a delightful tasting experience of whites and reds, it was time to think about dinner.

That evening we dined on gourmet Portuguese cuisine at La Salette, 452 First Street East, a popular restaurant. We added the optional wine pairing with dinner. Generous pours, perfectly paired with the appetizers, entrees and dessert, allowed us to sample more Sonoma County wines and provided an extra special dining experience.  I do recommend making reservations in advance as this sophisticated, tile-mural trimmed bistro has quite a local following.

After dinner, a leisurely stroll around the Plaza was the perfect way to end a perfect day. In Part Three of this series, I’ll tell you about two more delightful wine tasting rooms that I highly recommend and why, plus another restaurant that you’ll want to try!

Be sure to sign up for my distribution list or follow me on Twitter (@chardygirl) and I’ll let you know when the next in the series is out! Until then, I’ll keep on the hunt for the “perfect” chardonnay.

Sonoma Plaza – A Great Way to Sample Sonoma County Wines

Sonoma County, along with Napa and several other areas in California, suffered devastating wildfires last fall. Tragically, lives, jobs, homes and businesses were lost. The fires also took a toll on tourism, the lifeblood for wine regions, as many out of towners still think that Napa and Sonoma burnt down. But they didn’t and are advertising heavily for customers to come back. So, we decided to head to Sonoma County and do our small part for the economy. And, of course, enjoy some fabulous wines.

Renowned for its chardonnay, and just a one-hour drive from my home, Sonoma County is one of my favorite wine regions. Rolling green hills planted with miles and miles of grapevines, pedestrian friendly small towns, and more than 400 wineries, located in six wine growing regions, make this part of Northern California a big draw for wine lovers.

With 18 different AVAs spread over 1,768 square miles, it would take even the most dedicated wine lover to properly sample this region’s chardonnays. Fortunately, the small town of Sonoma – not to be confused with the County of Sonoma – provides 25 wine tasting rooms all within walking distance in the center of town. Spread around Sonoma Plaza, an 8-acre historic, Mexican-era style plaza, the biggest dilemma was where to start.

After parking the car at our hotel, my husband and favorite wine tasting partner, Gary, and I walked a few short blocks to the Lake Sonoma tasting room at 134 Church Street. The winery converted one of the town’s older houses into its tasting room and this recently refurbished tasting room feels like visiting the home of a friend. As Kelly, the tasting room manager, explained, “the life of the party is always in the kitchen. The winery turned the kitchen counter of this former home into the tasting room’s serving bar. Surround by barstools, this feels like a comfortable spot to sit, sip, and savor the wines. What a refreshing change from the usual, crowded “belly up to the bar” seen at so many other wineries.

The adjacent lounge, fashioned out of the former living room, is designed for customers who want to relax and enjoy a glass or bottle of wine. A comfortable couch with pillows and a blanket, as well as leather chairs are nicely arranged for this purpose. And the former dining room, complete with a dining table and comfortable chairs, serves as a place for wine club events and special wine and food pairings.

But we went there for the wines, so we settled onto bar stools to sample chardonnays from this well-known winery. They make five chardonnays, four from the Russian River Valley. Sonoma County is home to some of the most diverse terroirs and micro-climates in the world and the Russian River Valley, I think, produces some of the most outstanding chardonnays. We tasted the 2014 Lake Sonoma Winery, Russian River Valley and the 2016 Madrone Estate Winery (their sister winery in Glen Ellen), Sonoma Valley Chardonnay.

2014 Lake Sonoma Russian River Valley and 2016 Madrone Estate Winery Chardonnays

The 2014 chardonnay is an excellent example of fruit from the Russian River Valley. Hints of light oak and orange blossoms in the nose, followed by layers of vanilla and lemon cream in the palate combine for a delightful wine from start to finish. Partial fermentation in stainless steel produces a medium bodied wine with crisp acidity. Light-straw in color, 14.4% in alcohol, sells for $30.00 at the winery.

The newly released 2016 Madrone Estate Chardonnay from Sonoma Valley was my favorite of the two. The winery’s first estate grown wine from their Sonoma Valley estate produced a soft and creamy chardonnay. Aromas of vanilla and toffee come through, followed by flavors of crème brulee and a hint of butterscotch in the palate. With the perfect amount of acidity, this wine is delicious on its own, but would pair well with creamy foods. Light-straw colored, 14.1% in alcohol, retails for $40.00 at the winery.

We dined, shopped, talked to locals and tasted at four wineries in a few short days and I have so many more recommendations for you. But, I’ll stop here today and follow with more about the other wineries we visited, and even a few restaurants, in a short series of blogs on Sonoma, California.

Be sure to sign up for my distribution list and I’ll let you know when the next in the series is out! Until then, I’ll keep on the hunt for the “perfect” chardonnay.

Edna Valley 2015 Central Coast Chardonnay from California’s “Tuscany”

The Edna Valley American Viticultural Area—part of the San Luis Obispo County wine region—is often compared to Italy’s Tuscany Region in central Italy for its beauty. Spread across just 22,000 acres, nearly 30 wineries call this home.

With a continuous stream of coastal marine air, Edna Valley’s cool climate is perfect for producing chardonnay. Today, I am tasting the 2015 Central Coast Chardonnay from Edna Valley Vineyard, one of the area’s best-known vintners.

The bouquet displays aromas of soft peaches and quince. I taste butterscotch, so often found in California’s Central Coast chardonnays, and clove flavors. This is not a big wine. It’s light-bodied but elegant with bright acidity and a slight bite in the finish. The alcohol is 13% in volume.

The Edna Valley Vineyards 2015 Central Coast Chardonnay is not a high end wine like their Heritage Chardonnay, Reserve Chardonnay, or the Chamisal Chardonnay that I previously reviewed. But, it does make the perfect weeknight wine and at $10 a bottle, that’s good enough for me. I picked up a bottle at our local Raley’s grocery store, but you can also purchase it on Wine.com for the same price.

We paired this with a potato, pancetta flatbread with white sauce and found the combination to be delightful.

Langmeil 2014 Spring Fever – Barossa

Hello and Happy New Year! It’s been awhile since I posted a review, and for all my chardonnay loving friends, I apologize.

Things have been crazy in our world. We took a much-anticipated trip to Hawaii. We met our daughter, who lives in Australia, and spent Christmas in Maui. What a heavenly place to spend the holiday!

Plus, Gary, my favorite wine tasting partner, and I have been busy these past few months with more travel writing assignments. With several articles recently published and several more in the works, I’ve been distracted!

Langmeil 2014 Spring Fever Chardonnay from Barossa

But that’s no excuse for not doing my job, so today I am continuing with Australian chardonnays. I just love Australian wine. They are almost always bottled with screw caps which means you can get to the golden nectar that much faster!

Today, I am trying a chardonnay from Australia’s famous Barossa wine region. I usually think of this wine region for shiraz, but this bottle from Langmeil, caught my eye at our local grocery store.

The color is pale yellow, almost as light as champagne. When I first opened the bottle, the nose had a distinct aroma of oak, but that quickly dissipated, replaced by hints of honeysuckle and daphne.

Subtle melon and nectarine flavors, in combination with the soft, sweet perfume in the nose, made for a unique, but attractive chardonnay. I can’t say I’ve tasted one quite like it before, but I will definitely pick up another bottle again. This is an easy drinking chardonnay on its own, but it paired very nicely, too, with petite breakfast brie and fig jam.

This is a clean, well made, polished chardonnay, yet the body is mellow with a creamy finish. At 2014, it aged well, and at under $15, is very attractive.

I found it at our local Nugget Market, which carries a wide variety of imported as well as local wines, but you can buy it online at Marquis Wines or check Wine Searcher.

I don’t believe the winery sells the 2014 anymore, but it’s worth an inquiry directly with the winery, if you’re in Australia. Langmeilwinery.com.au

Cheers and here’s to many more months of happy wine tasting in 2018!

Terra Felix 2014 – Victoria, Australia

Thank goodness for that handy invention, bubble wrap wine skins. They really do work and we have been able to safely bring home wines from Australia, France, Italy, Argentina, Chile and Washington state (which is quickly becoming a favorite of mine – but that’s another wine, another blog).

Today, I’m tasting one more Australian wine we purchased from Wine Selectors and brought home with us last summer. This 2014 Terra Felix chardonnay comes from a single vineyard in the foothills of Mount Buffalo near Myrtleford in Alpine Valley, Victoria. Terra Felix means “The Lucky Country” in Latin, the way that owner Peter Simon’s father viewed Australia when he immigrated from Austria.

At first, the bouquet displays a faint vanilla scent with nutty oak overtones. As the wine opens up, the oak becomes more pronounced.

This medium bodied chardonnay has a light golden color. The mouthfeel is clean with crisp acidity in the finish. Flavors of citrus zest, apple and grapefruit come through.

We paired this wine with a Brie du Pommier, an aromatic artisan organic cheese from France and seasoned, seed covered flatbread crackers. The wine held up well to this rather flavorful combination.

The wine sells for $25 Australian dollars at Wine Selector.

Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino Wine Regions – Ways You Can Help

Sonoma County, one of my favorite wine regions, has been burning for almost a week. The nearby regions of Mendocino and Napa are also suffering catastrophic losses. With more than 5,000 homes destroyed, 36 people dead, and more than 50,000 people under evacuation orders, it doesn’t feel like the right time for a wine review. Instead, I ask that you consider ways to assist. Supplies, and especially monetary donations are needed.

Here are a few ways you can help:

The Red Cross needs volunteers to help with fire evacuees. Sign up online here or contact the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County at [email protected] or call (707) 573-3399.

United Way of Wine Country created a relief fund to help those affected by the fires. Donate here.

The Salvation Army has multiple teams providing meal services at evacuation centers and is seeking monetary donations. 100% of your donation goes to the relief effort. Donate here.

For other ways you can help, visit the Santa Rosa Press Democrat website for a comprehensive list of evacuation centers and volunteer opportunities.

Thank you for your kindness and generosity! I’ll be back soon with more wine reviews and stories.

Chardy Girl

Leeuwin Estate Prelude Vineyards – 2015 Margaret River

From the Margaret River, Western Australia, the Leeuwin Estate Prelude Vineyards, delivers another delicious chardonnay. With its cool climate, this is a region that produces the style of chardonnay I prefer.

The color of the wine, Leeuwin Estate Prelude Vineyards 2015, is bright, clear and light yellow in color. The nose displays aromas of ripe pears, fig, crème brulee, and slight oak. Subtle fruit flavors of peaches and apple, with a hint of biscuit, make this an easy drinking wine. The style is clean and light, almost refreshing in taste, with a medium body. It is 14.0% in alcohol.

One of the many that we purchased on our trip to Australia, I bought this one at Dan Murphy’s in Melbourne. For our USA readers, it’s available at FineWineHouse.com for $35.98. Or, you can just hop on a plane and head to Australia and taste all these yummy chardonnays I’ve been writing about these past few months, and see for yourself. It’s a long flight, so you’ll want to stay awhile. ?

Dog Ridge Butterfingers Chardonnay – McLaren Vale 2016

Somewhere in the McLaren Vale wine region, South Australia, lives a winemaker after my own heart. Determined to reintroduce a style of chardonnay that has gone out of favor in Australia, Fred Howard of Dog Ridge Winery began making an old-fashioned, creamy, buttery chardonnay called “Butterfingers.”

In fact, enamored with Fred’s new/old style of chardonnay, Harry Fisher from The Times on the Coast, in Victor Harbor, Australia, wrote a story about “Chardonnay Recovered from Fumble.” A copy of that article proudly graces the back label of every bottle of Butterfingers. Fisher writes, “A local winemaker is winding back the clock and looking to bring bold and full-bodied chardonnays back in to popularity with a new generation of wine drinkers.”

Introduced to this charming, energetic winemaker at the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show, we got a chance to stop by Fred’s booth, taste his wines, and learn more about his passion for making what I call the “old-fashioned” style of chardonnay. You know – the kind I’m always hunting for…

So, of course, I brought a bottle of this golden sunshine home with me from Australia. Aged in brand new French oak barrels, this chardonnay is lightly oaked. It’s golden in color, clean, clear and well, just plain pretty! Aromas of crème brulee and pear with a faint, sweet floral note fill the glass. It is a full structured, big, round, creamy and luscious wine, with flavors of stone fruit. The wine is 13.5% in alcohol.

We paid $20.00 AUD ($15.79 USD) for this chardonnay at the food and wine show, most likely a promotional price. But, it can be purchased for $27.99 AUD at BlackSheepBottleShop.com.au or $25.00 AUD on the Dog Ridge website.

McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide is one wine region we didn’t make it to when we visited Adelaide three years ago. With only time for one wine tour, we chose the famous Barossa Valley. But now that I’ve tasted several wines from the McLaren Vale, I’m definitely anxious to visit when we return to Australia. The list is growing longer with the Margaret River wine region calling my name and the Hunter Valley still on my bucket list. Mornington Peninsula, just outside of Melbourne and an easy side trip from Sydney, also came highly recommended. Until then, I’ll be saving my pennies for a return trip to this lovely wine producing country. Australia, keep making those lovely chardonnays. I’m coming back!

What Does “Chardy” Mean Anyway?

I’ve been blogging about chardonnay, sometimes serious, sometimes irreverent, sharing my reviews and perspectives on my favorite varietal with you for a while now. If you know the story about how I got the nickname “Chardygirl”, you know it came from Australia nearly four years ago and it’s stuck ever since.

You see Australians shorten everything. Breakfast is “brekkie” (and yes, you can actually find that on menus and restaurant signs). Sunglasses are “sunnies” and tradesmen (plumbers, electricians, construction workers) are “tradies.” And if a name can’t be shortened, it gets changed altogether. A sweater is a “jumper,” a car trunk is a “boot,” and my husband, Gary’s name is “Gazza.” Go figure.

We just spent four weeks in Australia and I heard that term, “chardy,” used over and over again. In Dan Murphy’s, the local wine and spirits store which is the Australian equivalent of a Total Wine or Bev Mo, I heard staff members pointing me to the chardy section, asking others if they had recommendations for a good buttery chardy or telling me the regions for the best chardies (Margaret River, Yarra, and Limestone Coast).

At the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show, they had a whole class devoted to tasting chardies only. The instructor was kind enough to point me to the best chardy maker in the country for that good, old-fashioned chardonnay (and yes, we will be tasting and reviewing “Butterfingers” very soon.)

Even the Wine Selectors guy in the Sydney airport called them chardies. (Next time you are in the Melbourne or Sydney domestic airport terminal, you too, can kill time tasting the best Australian wines from boutique wineries for free by visiting the Wine Selector booth in the middle of the terminal.)

But it never occurred to me that you, my dear readers, might not understand why the name “Chardy Girl.”

So now you know. It’s Australia speak for chardonnay. I wonder if Napa would shudder at the thought?

Cassein Chardonnay 2016 and Richard Hamilton Signature Chardonnay 2015

Through all of my “research” here in Australia, I’ve learned that winemakers in this country, like elsewhere, have shifted from making the “old” style of round, buttery, full-bodied chardonnay, opting for a leaner, unoaked style that tends to let the flavor of the chardonnay grape come through. In fact, I’ve tasted a few of those over the past several weeks and they aren’t too bad.

There are, fortunately, still plenty of winemakers out there, particularly in the Margaret River, Orange and Yarra wine regions that are still making my style of chardonnay. Thanks to a knowledgeable wine server at a Dan Murphy’s in Melbourne, a sales rep for Wine Selectors based out of the Sydney Airport Domestic Terminal, and numerous wine makers and experts at the recent Sydney Good Food and Wine Show, I’ve started finding those round and luscious chardonnays that still exist in Australia! It really does help to hunt around and ask other people…

Two rich and full bodied chardonnays from Australia.

The two wines I’m reviewing were purchased from Wine Selectors, a company that represents boutique wineries from all over Australia. Without signing up for a wine club, or committing to any recurring orders, you can just become a member and order wines by the six pack or by the case, at a reasonable price. We ordered a six pack of chardonnays “for lovers of the rich style” to sample a few. Today I’m reviewing the Cassegrain Chardonnay 2016 and the Richard Hamilton Adelaide Hills Signature Single Vineyard 2015.

The Cassegrain Chardonnay comes from the cool climate of the Central Ranges of New South Wales. There are notes of tropical fruit with hints of hazelnut and creme Brule. Pale yellow in color, clean and bright, this medium bodied wine ends with a soft, round finish. It has layers of stone fruit and hints of pineapple. I find the Cassegrain Chardonnay to be delicious and imminently drinkable.

The winery sells this wine for $23.95 a bottle, but we paid closer to $15 through Wine Selectors. Enjoy with chicken, fish or seafood, or simply by itself.

The Richard Hamilton Adelaide Hills Signature Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2015, of course, hails from the Adelaide Hills. The oak in the nose is a little too strong for my taste so let it breathe for a few minutes before sipping. Another light golden yellow, but clean and bright wine, it is elegant, stylish and full bodied. Fruit flavors come through in the taste.

The winery sells this for $30.00 a bottle, but again, through Wine Selectors, the cost was approximately $15.00. Enjoy with poultry, seafood or pasta.