Wine Reviews – Page 3

Waterbrook 2013 Reserve Chardonnay – Columbia Valley

After a glorious three week’s wine tasting in some of France’s most famous wine regions, we are now back in the US attending a travel writer’s workshop. Housed in a hotel just outside of Seattle for this conference, it just makes sense that we need to blog a Washington State chardonnay.

I don’t know Washington State wines well so we took a gamble when we visited a wine shop yesterday.

We are tasting a Waterbrook 2013 Reserve chardonnay from Columbia Valley. This is one of Walla Walla’s founding wineries, started in 1984. The nose opens with aromas of pear and vanilla spice. The mouthfeel is soft and round with a smooth finish. The color is pale gold, clean and shiny. It’s nicely balanced with tropical notes, hints of toasted almonds and tastes very similar to the California chardonnays from wine regions like Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley and Yolo County’s Delta and Dunnigan Hills that I love so much.

13.9% in alcohol, cost is $14.99. I’m really enjoying this wine and can’t wait to try more from Washington. In fact, we may just have to come back for a wine tasting trip in the near future…

Wine Tasting on a Rhone River Cruise with Petaluma Gap Winemakers

Cruising down the Rhone River on a wine themed river cruise was a great way to see the South of France and taste the wines of Provence. But we were even more fortunate to be sailing on a wine-themed cruise sponsored by the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance out of Sonoma County.

To promote its efforts to become their own designated appellation and raise a little money, the Alliance sponsored the cruise and sent along several cases of wine supplied by 12 wineries from within Petaluma Gap. The Alliance also sent four winemakers to represent the Gap, educate guests on the ship, conduct wine tasting sessions, and host winemaker dinners.

Lucky me, one of the first wine tastings featured four chardonnays from the region.

Pellet Estate 2015 Un-oaked, Sun Chase Vineyard

First on the tasting menu was a Pellet Estate 2015 chardonnay, unoaked from the Sun Chase Vineyard.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you already know that I lean towards chardonnays that are barrel fermented. But, I’ve tasted a few unoaked versions lately that have opened my eyes and palate a bit. The beauty of the unoaked chardonnay is the flavor of the fruit comes through and this Pellet Estate is no exception. Aged 8 months in stainless steel, the wine was clear and shiny with lemon yellow hues. The nose offered hints of pear, apple and pineapple aromas. The high fruit flavors of citrus, apple and pineapple were layered with a hint of almond and melon. It finished with depth and complexity. Alcohol is 14.5%. The wine retails for $36 at the winery.

Agnitio 2013 Chardonnay Sun Chase Vineyard

Next, we tasted the Agnitio 2013 Chardonnay, also from the Sun Chase Vineyard. This turned out to be my favorite. I was very pleased and surprised when a bottle of this showed up in our cabin later, thanks to the generosity of the winemakers.

This is Agnitio’s first vintage of Sun Chase Chardonnay. 100% fermented in oak barrels, this wine displayed the luscious Sonoma County chardonnay flavors that I love. The nose expressed aromas of lemon, white flowers, and pear and vanilla. A wine more full bodied than the Pellet, the mouthfeel had depth and complexity. There was some minerality in the flavor, layered with pear, vanilla and a hint of butterscotch. Alcohol is 14.1% and the wine sells for $40 at the winery.

Pfendler Vineyards 2014 Chardonnay

Pfendler is a small production winery that only has three wines in its current release, producing just 400 cases of this chardonnay.

Aged 10 months in French oak, the Pfendler was a beautiful wine with aromas of honeysuckle, apple, spice and lemon crème. The mouthfeel was lush and the color bright golden straw. The wine was layered with flavors of lychee, pear and a touch of minerality. Alcohol is 14.1% and it retails for $8 at the winery.

Rodney Strong 2014 Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast

Rodney Strong makes several different chardonnays and is one of my favorite Sonoma County wineries.

Barrel fermented in new French oak, the wine had aromas of toasty vanilla, apple and pear. The mouthfeel was rich and creamy, with flavors of pear, pineapple and a touch of spice. This was my second favorite in the tasting. 14.0% in alcohol, the wine retails for $25 at the winery.

Monte Vallon 2014 Pays D’Oc Chardonnay

From the South of France, “this exuberant Chardonnay has a pronounced buttery-vanilla bouquet with deep, intense, rich fruit on the palate.” Or, so says the description on the wine label. Sounds like the perfect chardonnay for me!

We are about to head to the South of France for a long-awaited wine cruise through the Rhone Valley. What’s interesting about this cruise is it is sponsored by Petaluma Gap Association out of Sonoma County and they’ll be bringing along several cases of Sonoma chardonnay. So, we’ll get to taste Sonoma chardonnay alongside French chardonnay. What more could a girl ask for!

To wet our whistles and prepare for this glorious trip, we are tasting the 2014 Monte Vallon Chardonnay purchased at our local Nugget Supermarket.

This wine does indeed display a buttery, vanilla nose with slight toasty oak notes and a hint of caramel. I love the bouquet. It displays a bright golden color and the alcohol volume is 13.5%. The mouthfeel is textured and creamy. The flavors are pear and peach with a pineapple finish. It is a full bodied, Languedoc styled white wine representative of the south of France.

Can’t wait to taste more French chardonnays. I’ll be blogging along the way, so stay tuned for more wine and more adventures!

Mallee Point Chardonnay from Australia

Malle Point Chardonnay 2014 – Casella Winery

One more Australian chardonnay from Total Wines, this one was only $6.99. I mentioned in my last blog that our daughter moved to Australia, so we are getting reacquainted with Australian chardonnay. Unfortunately, Total Wines did not have a lot to choose from on our last visit there, but what the heck, we’re having fun drinking Australian wine and thinking of our daughter “down under.”

This wine hails from South Eastern Australia, which we learned is a large wine growing area where wineries may grow or purchase grapes from several different vineyards to blend together and maintain consistency for their particular brand and varietal.

The bouquet in this wine has hints of coconut and oak. It’s a medium bodied wine, medium yellow in color, with some peach and some melon notes with nuances of green apple. The wine is not particularly complex or flavorful but chilled and served as a party wine, it would be okay.

We’ll be making a trip back to Australia soon and plan to visit both the Yarra Valley (one of the most beautiful wine regions I have seen) and Hunter Valley, both well known for chardonnay. In fact, I think Yarra may be similar to Sonoma County. They both specialize in chardonnay and pinot noir and their cool climates.

Stay tuned, Mate!

Tyrrell Chardonnay from Australia

In celebration of our daughter, Ashley, who moved to Sydney recently, we are tasting two Australian chardonnays today, both from the Hunter Valley.

Although we visited Australia a few years ago and had a delightful time tasting wines in two of the country’s more well-known wine regions, the Barossa and Yarra Valleys, we did not make it to Hunter Valley. Fortunately for us, we’ll need to make a return trip, to visit our daughter, of course, and Hunter Valley is calling my name. Stay tuned for more on Australian wines!

Tyrell’s Old Winery Chardonnay 2014

Barrel fermented for 6 months, this medium bodied wine displays subtle oak in the nose, with some hints of stone fruit. The mouthfeel is smooth. The wine is clean and accessible with delicate flavors of white peach and citrus. The color is light golden yellow and alcohol is 13.0%

This Old Winery chardonnay is a decent wine and imminently drinkable, but a little light in flavor for my taste. Can be purchased at Total Wine for $12.59

Tyrrell’s Reserve Hunter Valley 2010

While a vintage of 2010 seems a little old for a white wine, this reserve chardonnay holds up well. The bouquet displays notes of honeysuckle and slight perfume. A richer, more fruit forward chardonnay than the Old Winery chardonnay described above, it is similar as it also has some flavors of peach and citrus. I’ll be curious, when we make it to Hunter Valley, to see if those are characteristics distinct to that wine growing region.

This wine tastes clean and well made, medium bodied, complex, round, with a smooth finish. As it opens up, the Reserve grows more complex.

Medium yellow in color and 13.0% in alcohol. Retails for $21.59 at Total Wine.

Sonoma-Loeb Chardonnay Sonoma County 2014

Makers of several different chardonnays, Sonoma-Loeb has been described as one of the premier white wine makers in Sonoma County and recommended to us by a wine server at Passagio. Although we didn’t get a chance to stop by on our recent trip to the small town of Sonoma, Sonoma-Loeb also has a tasting room in the same “wine alley” as Passagio, just off the town’s main square.

This limited production chardonnay, hand crafted in small lots, fits the profile of my kind of chardonnay. There are hints of mild oak and pear in the nose. The wine is soft, round and elegant with a lush, full flavored finish. The body is balanced, polished, clean and well made.

After tasting this wine, I think it’s worth a return trip to taste a few of Sonoma-Loeb’s other chardonnays, especially their reserve chardonnays. But if you can’t make it over to Sonoma anytime soon, you can pick up a bottle of this at Total Wine for $18.99. Not too bad for a quality bottle of Sonoma County chardonnay.

Napa Valley or Sonoma County?

As 2016 comes to a close, we are wrapping up a fun and delicious year of wine tasting with two California chardonnays.

For this tasting, we chose two different chardonnays from Trader Joe’s. Both chardonnays are the Trader Joe’s brand, and both $12.99 a bottle, but one is from the famed Carneros wine region in Napa Valley, and the other is from Chalk Hill in Sonoma County. Here’s what we found:

Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve – Chalk Hill, Sonoma County 2015 Lot #28

The nose on this wine has slight toasty oak and vanilla notes. It is light in color and has a polished and balanced acidity. I am tasting layers of citrus zest and pear, with a butterscotch flavor in the finish. The wine is 15.1% in alcohol.

Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve – Carneros, Napa Valley 2014 Lot #51

This wine is also light in color, but the nose opens with a subtle fragrance of honeysuckle. Although the bouquet is subtle, the flavors of the wine, coconut, pear, and vanilla come through nicely. It has a soft, smooth finish and is 14.5% in alcohol.

The Napa wine is more flavorful and pronounced while the Chalk Hill wine is softer, more subtle all the way around. I’m normally a lover of Chalk Hill, but this time I think I prefer the Carneros wine. At just $12.99 a bottle, I’m definitely headed back to Trader Joes to round out my New Year’s Eve wine selection.

Thank you for following us in 2016. We are looking forward to much more tasting, even heading to Australia to enjoy the delicious chardonnays from the Barossa wine region. So stay tuned. Come back and visit us often.

Wishing you the best in 2017! Happy New Year!

Boeger 2015 El Dorado Chardonnay

We’ve traversed Sonoma, tried wines from Napa, sampled many Yolo chardonnays, dipped down into Arroyo Seco and even hopscotched over to Argentina, but I don’t think we’ve covered any El Dorado wines yet.

Today we are trying the Boeger 2015 El Dorado Chardonnay, a recent gift from my darling friend, Rebecca.

This is not a creamy or full-bodied wine but leans more towards a light-bodied wine with a soft finish. It has a polished style. I taste layers of pear and apricot with hints of citrus. Luscious vanilla bean and honeysuckle notes are in the bouquet.

100% malolactic fermentation, 30% French oak and lees stirring contribute to make this an easy drinking wine. I love the notes in the nose and think that is my favorite part of this wine. At just $16 a bottle, I like it!

Chardonnay from Argentina’s Mendoza Wine Region

Our recent visit to the Mendoza wine region in Argentina left me wanting for more of the delicious wine from this sun-kissed part of the world. Fortunately for me, just about the time we arrived home, Wine.com decided to hold a sale on several Argentinian and Chilean wines (Yes, we stopped on the other side of the Andes, too, to sample the wines of Valle del Maipo).

I ordered a variety of chardonnays to be delivered. Today we are tasting the 2014 Alamos Chardonnay and the Tilia Chardonnay from Mendoza.

Alamos Chardonnay Mendoza 2014

This wine has a brilliant, light yellow color. Enjoy hints of vanilla in the nose, followed by tastes of stone fruit and ripe apple, layered with vanilla. It is well-balanced and full-flavored, very much to my liking. It also has a lovely finish that lingers on my palate. The wine sold for $9.99 on Wine.com.

Cultivated by the Catena family for over 100 years, Alamos vineyards lie in the foothills of the Andes Mountains.

This wine pairs nicely with roasted chicken or pasta dishes with a cream sauce. We also sampled it with a soft brie cheese and found the pairing to be delightful.

Tilia Chardonnay Mendoza 2014

This wine has slight hints of toasted oak and vanilla in the nose. The wine itself, however displays a ripe citrus flavor. The color is also a brilliant, light yellow like the Alamos. The Tilia is well-balanced, lighter bodied than the Alamos, with a clean, refreshing finish. We purchased it for $10.99 from Wine.com.

Tilia is sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards in the Eastern and Southern regions of Mendoza. Pair with a mild white cheese or grilled chicken or grilled vegetables.

Of the two wines, I found the Alamos to be more to my liking. I lean towards the fuller-flavored, fuller-bodied chardonnays. And for the price, I could see myself stocking up on some more Alamos Chardonnay.

Trader Joe’s Chardonnay – Side by Side Comparison of Two Chardonnays

Today we stopped in to Trader Joe’s and picked up several wines to try. Two chardonnays that were advertised in their latest flyer and intrigued me were the Big Churn, described as a big, buttery chardonnay, and the Eris Vineyards Chardonnay, described as buttery and rich. Although the prices were different, I decided to do a side by side comparison of the two. Here’s what I found:

Big Churn – 2014 California Chardonnay sells for $6.99. This is a big wine that opens up with oak in the nose and hints of vanilla. Malolactic fermentation is in full swing here and is, perhaps, a bit overdone. Appearance is honey yellow and the wine is 14.5% in alcohol. The wine does display fruit notes of pear with a smooth, lingering finish, but the wine is just too overpowering for my taste. This wine is vinted and bottled by Big Churn in Napa.

Eris Chardonnay – 2014 Carneros Estate Napa Valley, is bright yellow in color, made from 100% chardonnay grapes from a single estate on the Napa side of Carneros. This is a much more refined chardonnay than the Big Churn and at $12.99 a bottle, a pretty decently priced wine. The nose is faint but the wine is buttery and smooth, with a creamy mouthfeel. The flavors are fruity with hints of peaches and citrus and finishes with toasty vanilla. This is definitely a better wine than the Churn and worth the extra $6.00 per bottle. I can’t swear to it, but the Eris Chardonnay may be related to Cuvaison. My searches online for Eris Chardonnay kept leading me to the Cuvaison website. Again, not sure, but snap up some bottles of this delicious chardonnay before they’re gone.