Chateau de la Tour de L'ange

Name: Chateau de la Tour de L'ange
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2010
Country/State: France
Region: Burgundy
Price: $14
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

We enjoyed this white Burgundy last week...The nose was a bit limited, but the flavors were great.  Mostly pears, apples, some citrus, and lemons.  It had great acidity and was quite juicy.

DeBeaune Les Galopieres Pouilly-Fuisse

Name: Debeaune Les Galopieres Pouilly-Fuisse
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2008
Country/State: France
Region: Pouilly-Fuisse
Price: $20
Stars: 4 (out of 5)



This French Chardonnay was very enjoyable...It was smooth, balanced, and delicious. It tasted primarily like green apple, pear, and other citrus flavors. The nose was similar but was a bit restrained. The flavors, however, were terrific. The finish was long and the acidity was excellent. The wine was great with dinner and also very good on its own.

I continue to really like French whites.

Snoqualmie Naked Chardonnay

Name: Snoqualmie Naked Chardonnay
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2008
Country/State: Washington
Region: Columbia Valley
Price: $12
Stars: 4 (out of 5)


We enjoyed the Snoqualmie Naked Chardonnay with appetizers on Thanksgiving Day. It was delicious, with flavors of pear, green apple, and citrus. It was very well balanced and was excellent with and without food. It had a fuller body than I expected, which I really enjoy in a Chardonnay. At the same time, it was juicy, crisp, and clean. I will definitely seek out other wines from this Washington winery in the near future.

Domaine Lenoir Macon-Villages

Name: Domaine Lenoir Les Vins Jean Claude DeBeaune
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2009
Country/State: France
Region: Burgundy (Macon-Villages)
Price: $12
Stars: 4 (out of 5)



This is a terrific white Burgundy from the Macon-Villages region in France. It features aromas of apples, pears, and other white fruits. The taste is similar to the nose but it also has a little kick of citrus. This Chardonnay is unoaked, medium-bodied, smooth, and easy drinking. It paired nicely with a roast chicken we had for dinner. We used a bit of the wine in the sauce.

The wine was also excellent on its own. French Chardonnays continue to be among our favorite white wines.

Indaba Chardonnay

Name: Indaba
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2009
Country/State: South Africa
Region: Western Cape
Price: $8 (on sale)
Stars: 4 (out of 5)


We had this chardonnay from South Africa tonight with crab and cheese on English muffins and grilled asparagus. The meal and the wine were similar - light, easy, and delicious.

The wine was light to medium bodied, with aromas of pineapples, pears, and honey. The taste was filled with apples, honey, citrus, and a little bit of cream. The finish was fairly long and completely enjoyable. For the price (normally around $10), the Indaba Chardonnay is a fantastic value. We continue to have great luck with wines from South Africa.

Domaine Roger Luquet Clos de Condemine

Name: Domaine Roger Luquet Clos de Condemine
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2008
Country/State: France
Region: Burgundy (Macon-Villages)
Price: $15
Stars: 4 (out of 5)


We had this terrific French white last night with dinner (fish and pasta)...The wine went well with dinner and was great on its own. There wasn't much going on in the nose -- mostly pear and green apple. The taste was similar to the nose, but its great minerality and clean crispness made it very enjoyable. We continue to have good luck with French whites.

Chardonnay - Blind Tasting

For Valentine's Day, Krista came up with the idea to do a blind tasting of a few bottles of one type of wine. After debating between several ideas like Sirah/Shiraz, Southern Rhone reds, Petite Sirah, and others, I decided to start with Chardonnay. Not for any real reason other than the fact that Chardonnay is grown all over the world and made in many different varieties. Most of the Chardonnay we prefer is unoaked or at the most, lightly oaked.

I settled on 4 bottles - two from California, one from France, and one from Chile. Here's the line-up:

• Four Vines Naked Chardonnay, (California, Santa Barbara County), 2008, $13
• Michel Dutour "La Roche" Pouilly-Fuisse, (France, Pouilly-Fuisse), 2006, $16
• Cono Sur Chardonnay, (Chile, Central Valley), 2009, $9
• Kunde Estate Chardonnay, (California, Sonoma), 2006, $12

I bagged the bottles, then Krista mixed them up and numbered them:



We sampled each of the wines over the course of the night with cheese, bread, and crackers...



Our notes on the 4 bottles:

#1 - the color of this wine was the most pale of any of the four; it had a nice medium body with aromas and flavors of apples, pears, and citrus...tart...fruit forward, very tasty

#2 - also pale, clear...very limited nose, but extremely nice in the mouth...lemony, very smooth with a very long finish

#3 - similar to #1 in aroma and taste...green apple flavors, tart...refreshing acidity...a little lighter bodied than #1

#4 - sort of like a combination of #2 and #3...lemons, citrus, more on the nose than #2...stronger acidity and a little grassy

_________________________________________________________________

Krista and I both enjoyed all 4 wines very much. There were no clunkers in the bunch. However, we both agreed that #2 stood out as our favorite, followed closely by #1.

It turns out that the winner was the French Chardonnay, Michel Dutour "La Roche" Pouilly-Fuisse. The runner-up was the wine from Chile made by Cono Sur. There was a slight drop-off after these two, meaning that the two Chardonnays from California were our 3rd and 4th favorites from the group.

We had a lot of fun with our little blind tasting and can't wait to do it again with a different batch of wines!!

Canyon Oaks Chardonnay

Name: Canyon Oaks
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: California
Region: Various
Price: $5
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

This is one of our favorite inexpensive wines. It's a clean, crisp, refreshing Chardonnay from Canyon Oaks that sells for about $5. I think the 1.5 liter is around $8, perfect for parties or to stick in the fridge for a few days of drinking. Despite the word "Oaks" in the name of the winery, we like this Chardonnay because is decidedly un-oaky. The nose and taste are dominated by citrus fruit, mostly apples and pears.

We each drank a glass last night with Mahi filets, pesto pasta, and spinach salad. The dinner was excellent and the wine was just what we expected. We'll definitely polish it off tonight!



What a great day -- Kentucky knocked off Louisville, completing the football/basketball season sweep. It's amazing to see the complete disparity in talent levels between the Commonwealth's team and their little brother. Despite horrible free throw shooting, terrible 3 point shooting, and virtually no contribution from Darius Miller or Darnell Dodson, UK won rather convincingly. The 'Ville showed a little fight for a brief stretch in the 2nd half, but John Wall slapped them silly and put them to bed. It was quite clear after watching the game that Kentucky, on a normal day, is about 25-30 points better than the dirty birds. It's nice to see order returned to the state as UK has taken its rightful place as the dominant college basketball (and football) force in the state!!


I enjoyed a couple glasses of Maker's Mark during the game...

Cupcake Chardonnay

Name: Cupcake Vineyards
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2008
Country/State: California
Region: Central Coast
Price: $10
Stars: 4 (out of 5)



We enjoyed this wine last night with rotisserie chicken and salad. We had previously tasted it at a local wine tasting at Ed's Fine Wines in Safety Harbor. Krista really liked it then, so I picked up a bottle a couple of weeks ago when I was at Leuken's Liquors in Dunedin. The Cupcake Chardonnay was very nice...easy drinking, well balanced, with a medium body. It was crisp, clean, and refreshing, and tasted primarily of citrus and white fruit with some cream and vanilla imparted by the 9 months it was aged in American oak. The oak presence was not over-bearing; it was more in the background and didn't detract at all from the taste and drinkability.

This was one of the better Chardonnays we've had recently and we will definitely keep it on our list.

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.

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.

Double Dog Dare Chardonnay

Name: Double Dog Dare
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: NA
Country/State: California
Region: Various
Price: $4
Stars: 4 (out of 5)


For the price, $4, you can't beat the Double Dog Dare Chardonnay. I bought this wine recently at Total Wine after seeing it recommended on various websites as a tremendous value. I figured for $4, it was worth a shot...After having a couple of glasses last night with dinner (grilled swordfish!), I agree with all of the positive reviews. It's incredibly fresh, fruity, and light. The nose is rather limited, but the taste is apples and citrus fruit with a lemony blast at the end. The finish is nice, though not particularly long. Not much oak, if any at all. Very refreshing!! For the price, it's tough to beat. This wine would best be enjoyed on its own or with light seafood or chicken dishes.

Bogle Chardonnay

Name: Bogle
Color: White
Varietal: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: California
Region: NA
Price: $10
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

Krista picked out this wine after we attended a wine tasting together on Friday night at Ed's Fine Wines. This wasn't one of the wines offered that night, but she selected it based on the description at the store that suggested the wine had a pineapple flavor. The same night, I picked up a bottle of the Concannon Petite Sirah, which was offered at the tasting and we both really liked it. I plan on drinking that one soon.

We took the Bogle Chardonnay with us to Krista's parents house for dinner and drank a little before and during the meal. We both really enjoyed this wine. I think I liked it a little more than she did, but I like just about everything. I really liked the full mouthfeel that I got from this wine, as well as the buttery, fruity taste (mostly pears and green apples). Neither of us picked up on the pineapple, but it was still very good. The 2007 was aged for 7 months in 50% new American oak, giving the wine a touch of oak, but not too much. I found it to be crisp, well-balanced, and refreshing...For $10 or less, I would highly recommend the Bogle Chardonnay...I can't wait to try their Petite Sirah, which I bought today!

Mark Davidson White Blend

Name: Mark Davidson
Color: White
Varietal: Blend (Chardonnay/Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc)
Vintage: NV
Country/State: Australia
Region: SE Australia
Price: $10

Stars: 4.5 (out of 5)


Excellent!! A very interesting, full-bodied white blend results in a really tasty, smooth wine. White citrus tropical fruit dominates the nose, with some creamy vanilla notes from the portion of the chardonnay that gets fermented in oak. The wine was a brilliant, almost fluorescent yellow color in the glass. We both tasted green apples, like eating Jolly Rancher sour green apple candies, with some grapefruit and cream. We enjoyed this wine with a chicken ring that Krista made. I bought this wine at Ed's Fine Wines, based on a recommendation of the store clerk. We have had Mark Davidson's Shiraz in the past and really enjoyed it, too......

As for a comparison to a UK player, I'm going with Keith Bogans. This wine was a nice blend of three grapes; Bogans had a nice blend of talent, toughness, and heart. I was surprised by how much I liked this wine, just like I was surprised by the great senior season Keith had, bouncing back from a disappointing junior year. He carried the Cats to a perfect record in the SEC, an SEC tournament title, and probably would have taken the team to the Final Four if he hadn't hurt his ankle in the Sweet Sixteen. He was hobbled as D-Wade and Marquette beat UK in the Elite Eight that year. Great player, really good wine.