White Hall Vineyards Chardonnay

Name: White Hall Vineyards
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: Virginia
Region: Various
Price: $15
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

This is another Virginia wine that we picked up during our trip to Virginia and Kentucky several weeks ago. We drank it Sunday night with chicken and stuffing and finished the bottle tonight without food. It was very good on both nights.

According to their website, White Hall Vineyards is located just outside of Charlottesville, with amazing views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The grounds look spectacular, and Krista and I would definitely love to visit it the next time we're up that way....I bought this wine, along with their Viognier, based on the recommendation of a local wine shop owner in Richmond. It's 100% Chardonnay, aged in French and American oak barrels and then held in stainless steel tanks for 10 months.

The aroma was pear, apple, and citrus. The taste was similar, with the apples coming through more for me. Krista also picked up on the apples. The wine was very crisp and refreshing, with just enough acidity to pair well with a variety of foods.

I can't wait to try the White Hall Viognier.

MezzaCorona Pinot Grigio

Name: MezzaCorona
Color: White
Varietal: Pinot Grigio
Vintage: 2008
Country/State: Italy
Region: Trentino - Alto Adige
Price: $8
Stars: 3.5 (out of 5)

For a widely available, inexpensive, mass-produced wine, this MezzaCorona Pinot Grigio is very good. It's a wine that's definitely meant to be drunk young, and it functions as a cool, crisp, refreshing white for a hot summer day. The color is a pale straw, with a nose and taste of lemon, lime, peach, and citrus.

We drank this wine first on Friday night, with tilapia and crab meat. We finished it tonight on its own after dinner. The wine went well with the fish and was also very refreshing and tasty without food. It's hard to get too excited about a cheap Pinot Grigio, but for a summer sipper, you could do a lot worse than the MezzaCorona.

Pierre Amadieu "La Grangeliere" Vacqueyras

Name: Pierre Amadieu "La Grangeliere"
Color: Red
Varietal: Blend (Grenache/Syrah)
Vintage: 2005
Country/State: France
Region: Southern Rhone (Vacqueyras)
Price: $16
Stars: 4.5 (out of 5)


We loved this wine! We drank it last night with steaks that we grilled on our new grill. We finally had to part ways with our last grill that we had for about 12 years. It got to the point that it became more of a fire hazard than an outdoor kitchen appliance. We broke in the new one last night and it was great - I forgot how nice it is to have an automatic ignitor switch and to have both burners working evenly...

Krista and the boys bought this bottle of wine for me last Christmas, and I've been anxious to try it ever since. Finally, we got around to opening it last night and it was definitely worth the wait. Right out of the bottle, it was little hot, so I poured into the decanter and let it sit for about an hour. It definitely mellowed as it sat and got better and smoother throughout the night. The color was a deep, dark red. The nose was big dark fruits, dark cherries and plums, with some pepper and spice. The taste was similar to the aroma, and it paired really well with the peppery steaks. The finish was nice and long. Overall, it was a pretty full-bodied wine and was the type of red blend that we really like.

Chateau Montet Sauvignon Blanc

Name: Chateau Montet
Color: White
Varietal: Sauvignon Blanc
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: France
Region: Bordeaux
Price: $9
Stars: 4 (out of 5)


The Chateau Montet is a white Bordeaux made with Sauvignon Blanc grapes. It was very clean, crisp, and refreshing. I picked up on lemon and lime flavors, with maybe a little grapefruit. It also had some nice mineral notes that I really liked. One thing that really stood out to me was the relatively "tame" acidity level. It was nicely balanced, without the higher acidity found in most New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs.

We drank this wine last night with a dinner of white fish and crab meat. The wine and the meal went perfectly together, as the wine really picked up on the fresh lemon flavor of the fish. It also drank very well on its own after dinner...For $9, this was an extremely good value.

Chalone Chardonnay

Name: Chalone Vineyards
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: California
Region: Monterey
Price: $9
Stars: 4.5 (out of 5)

This was a fantastic Chardonnay for the price. We drank this wine last night with an Asian chicken salad and thought it was terrific...The color was a brilliant yellow-gold, and the nose was bright white fruits (apples, pears, citrus). The taste I picked up most was creamy, buttery apples. It was very smooth and very well balanced with just the right amount of acidity. It had a nice, medium body with a very good mouthfeel. This is a very versatile wine that would match up well with many dishes.

Coincidentally, the Chalone Chardonnay was one of the five American Chard's recently recommended by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher of the Wall Street Journal's Tastings column. They bought and tasted more than 50 Chard's and found most to be boring with a lemony, oaky water taste. The Chalone was a standout, however, so much so that it was rated "Very Good" and named the "Best Value". My tastes generally tend to agree with theirs, and this wine was no exception. Krista and I really enjoyed it and will definitely buy it again.


Just one note: this was the "regular" Monterey bottling, not the more expensive "Estate" bottling.

Obvio Malbec

Name: Obvio
Color: Red
Varietal: Malbec
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: Argentina
Region: Mendoza
Price: $10
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

It's really hard to go wrong with a Malbec from Argentina. This wine, by Obvio, is just another example. It has a deep purple color with a nose of red and black fruits. The taste is really fruit forward and it does a good job of filling and coating the mouth. The finish is nice and fairly long. For $10, it's an excellent value.

We drank a couple of glasses tonight with a dinner of turkey with BBQ sauce, macaroni and cheese, and salad. Maybe not the ideal match (most people think of Zinfandel with BBQ), but it really seemed to work well for us...especially because this wine is so easy going and approachable. I'm starting to think that you can just walk down the Argentina Malbec aisle blindfolded and walk away with a good wine. They are consistently good buys.

Elk Creek Sweet Owen Red

Name: Elk Creek Vineyards Sweet Owen Red
Color: Red
Varietal: Norton
Vintage: 2006
Country/State: Kentucky
Region: Owenton
Price: $12
Stars: 3.5 (out of 5)

We picked up this wine during our recent trip to Lexington. As we were visiting Rupp Arena, we noticed a wine store in the mall that's connected to Rupp. This store sold only wines made in the state of Kentucky. Knowing that we would be visiting Talon Winery the next day, I didn't want to spend too much money on wine in the store, but this one really caught my eye, especially the name "Sweet Owen Red". Our youngest son is Owen, so buying a bottle of this wine was a no-brainer. It turns the wine is made by Kentucky's largest winery, Elk Creek Vineyards. (After checking out the winery's website, Krista and I can't wait to visit it one day...It's huge with lush grounds and an amazing tasting room, complete with on-site accommodations.)

We drank this bottle last night after dinner and really enjoyed it. It was our first experience with a wine made from the Norton grape, which after some research, appears to be generally compared to Zinfandel. From what I have read, the Norton is also known as Cynthiana. It is grown primarily in Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri, and may be the oldest grown grape native to North America. Anyway, the Sweet Owen Red was very distinctive in its aroma and taste. It smelled and tasted of sweet red fruits. It also benefited from the exposure to air. We decanted it and it really got better (and less oak-y) as the night went on. It's kind of hard to describe with my limited experience...It wasn't as full bodied and mouth-filling as most red wines that we prefer, but that certainly didn't stop us from finishing the bottle!

Jefferson Vineyards Cabernet Franc

Name: Jefferson Vineyards
Color: Red
Varietal: Cabernet Franc
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: Virginia
Region: Monticello
Price: $20
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

We drank this wine last night with stuffed shells and finished the bottle later that same night after the kids were in bed. It was our first 100% Cab Franc, and we really enjoyed it. It wasn't nearly as fruit forward as most of the reds we end up drinking, but I still picked up on some raspberries with a peppery, spicy undertone. It had a nice, medium body with soft tannins.

We bought this wine based on the recommendation of the owner of a local wine store in Richmond during our recent trip to Virginia, where we visited my brother and his family. I'll probably write a separate post about our trip to Virginia and Kentucky as soon as I get settled back into a routine here at home. We had a great time and picked up a handful of wines from both states.