Chardonnay

I’m a picky person. I don't like very many things. I find the majority of fruits to be a bit too squishy, a small population of vegetables to be horrifying (brussel sprouts, lima beans, peas, cauliflower, etc.), most nuts to be too nutty. I don’t care for most sodas, the majority of tropical-themed juices, and anything MinuteMaid makes my teeth hurt.

And so it constantly surprises me how much I like wine. And how much I like all of the varietals. It's very rare that I'm horrified by a wine, Cupcake Red Velvet, being the most recent exception to the rule. (If it's a sweet red that makes non-wine drinkers go: "Mmm! Tastes like chocolate!" then I probably hate it. And it's probably Cupcake Red Velvet.)

Maybe a year ago, I would have put quite a few varietals in the list of things I didn’t care for – Shiraz, Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir. But time and money have conquered most of these dislikes and turned them into loves. I have already chronicled my fear of Pinot Noir and the Oregon summer that lead me to drinking more regularly than a Cabernet or Merlot… But I haven’t spoken about many white wines.

I’ll start with Chardonnay. The Chardonnay obstacle was a mental roadblock - buttery whites that dominate female ordering on 90s television shows spelled out a “No thanks!” for me. The name even sounds terrible. When I say it in my head I imagine a bigger man from a Southern state pronouncing it in an accent, his large hands around a tiny, cheap glass of wine. Maybe it’s the alliteration, or the ugly “Chard” introduction to the word…

But then I had a really cheap, really great encounter with the Columbia Crest Two Vines Chardonnay. I don’t usually make it a habit to buy $6-$7 wines, but one summer day the Wine Spectator’s 89 point rating and the teeny price tag drew me in. You can read more about the tasting experience here.

And then I had another encounter, at over 2x the price of the Columbia Crest that solidified my taste for Chardonnay. I went to a Safeway wine tasting recently (it was every bit as sterile as it sounds, but I’m glad Safeway is trying to offer this!) and they had available a La Crema Chardonnay, Pinot Noir (from the Sonoma coast) and Kendall Jackson’s Summation red. I won’t go into how much I resist buying anything with a name so boring as Kendall Jackson and I’ll admit that I loved the Summation blend (against my aesthetic, creative judgment). I didn’t have high hopes for the Chardonnay, but once again, was surprised.

The 2009 La Crema Chardonnay ($14.99 on sale at Safeway/off sale $20) is a delicious, more adult Chardonnay). Though it was still rich with oak and silky smooth, the wine had a great hint of acidity that cut the smoothness. The dimension in this Chardonnay, blended flavors of honey and apple, complimented by the acidity, pushed it beyond the designation of an easy drinking, summer porch wine Chardonnay. I was blown away by the taste in store and bought it to go with some fresh basil, tomato, and mozzarella pizza. The freshness of all of the flavors reminded me of the crispness of early spring.

If you, like me, fear the large man holding a tiny glass of Chardonnay, pronouncing Merlot “Mer-lot,” or equally fear turning into a mini-skirt clad 90s lawyer ordering Chardonnay at a local bar (I’ve been watching Ally McBeal) – then try the La Crema Chardonnay. I think you’ll take a sip and picture a satisfied oenophile on a terrace somewhere in California, looking over a rolling sea, listening to sea birds.

A tribute to summer whites

From above, it would appear that I am sitting in the epicenter of a large, household earthquake, clothing strewn about me, boxes half-opened and half-filled radiating away from my person in no particular order. Once again, I’m packing and moving. I guess I’m not really moving but moving out (I don’t think that you can actually move when you don’t have a place to move to)… So goes my warm season (I’m not calling it summer anymore since my unemployment makes the summer some kind of unappreciated, hateful, and endless concept). I am moving up to Seattle, to live with family for a bit, while I continue to search for jobs in the city. As it currently stands, the only jobs I don’t want involve working with children or liquid waste. Anything else? I’ll take it.

Naturally, because I have to move things, it’s hot out. The weather waited until just now to get sweltering, so that I could wander around the garage like an ungainly savanna creature, battling massive spiders for possession of my boxed up kitchen gadgets. As I wait until it’s an appropriate time to make a refreshing afternoon beverage, I figured it was a good time to share some of the white wines I tried recently.

With so few days left of warm weather (Washington’s “beautiful summer” lasts from August 15^th to August 30^th), it’s a great time to drink cool and refreshing white wines. It also seems like they’re on sale right now as stores try to move their white wine summer stock out in favor of getting warm fall drinks on the shelves. The first white I tried was a 2008 Marotti Campi Luzano ($10.99), a white wine from Italy made from verdicchio grapes. I was expecting a dryer white, but upon opening the wine the bouquet was of citrus fruit, pear, and apple. It smelled very similar to a Riesling. This wine had notes of grapefruit and pear, and had a dry finish that cut the sweetness of the wine. The back end seemed rather sharp and acidic to me, but upon looking up the varietal, I found that verdicchio wines are known for their high acidity and citrusy flavors. I found this wine to be somewhat off-balance, a suggestion that verdicchio grapes are not a good wine for me. This wine’s seemingly odd mix of acidity and sweetness made it similarly difficult to think of anything it would pair well with. A friend that I was drinking it with suggested, simply, that the only thing it would go well with was “green beans.” And that, I think, might tell more about this wine than any tasting notes can.

The second white I tried was a much better success and a really great deal. If you’re looking for a cheap summer white wine, perfect for lounging about on the porch in the heat, I strongly suggest buying the 2009 Columbia Crest Two Vines Pinot Grigio. It was on sale at Fred Meyer for $6.99 and comes with the recommendation of earning many “Best Value” awards, but also with an impressive 87 points from Wine Spectator. This Pinot Grigio was much sweeter and less dry than many I’ve had in the past but was so perfectly well-rounded that the sweetness was neither grating nor tiring. It opened with citrus and floral notes and finished with a distinct flavor of honeysuckle. It was extremely smooth, especially for a seven-dollar bottle of wine. I had this wine with fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden, a warm baguette and brie… and as delicious as the food and wine were separately, I’d strongly recommend against the pairing. The food (probably the balsamic vinegar on the tomatoes) made the wine biting and acidic. I’d go for something lighter and less sharp as a pair, perhaps fish or chicken.

To finish, and I know I already posted about this, I entered a wine contest on Snooth.com and would love if you’d read my article here and like, tweet, recommend or plus it! I could win $250 if I beat the other entries.

Any question or comments or wines to try? Email gradsguidetowine@gmail.com.

Too Hot for Red Wine

It has actually been hot enough in Oregon for the past few days to make red wine sound unappetizing. A terrifying prospect, I know, but I am glad that the weather led me here. With a shoulder peeling from a sunburn (it is something to relish after four years spent in Washington state), I found myself stuck between white wine and a hard place. The thing is that I don’t love white wine. I am not a fan of Chardonnay, have never fully acquainted myself with Sauvignon Blanc and I don’t feel like drinking Riesling unless there is no candy around the house… which basically leaves me with Pinot Grigio. Luckily, the first wine I ever loved was a Pinot Grigio. I seem to remember that it was sparkling, luminescent in the glass and entirely lovely to gaze at.

I didn’t see my favorite Pinot Grigios on the shelf (Zenato and Kris, both Italian wines), so I turned to the trusty Columbia Crest’s Horse Heaven Hills winemakers. Rated 89 points by the Wine Spectator, this Vintage 2009 Horse Heaven Hills Pinot Gris* was only $10.99 and turned out to be a great value! In the glass this Pinot Gris was equally lovely to behold. A family friend recently sent me some historical booklets on wine and other spirits from around the 1930s and in one of them titled Simple Facts about Wines, Spirits, Ales, and Stouts the tasting guide suggests that wine should be a pleasure to the eyes as well as the palate. The author suggested that one should “look first for brilliancy —a characteristic known to tasters as ‘candlebright.’” This Pinot Gris definitely fit that rather medieval term. It was so light and clear that it looked as if it had been aged only in stainless steel barrels (white wines have a straw color if they have been aged in oak). According to the Columbia Crest website, this guess wasn’t far off as 92% of this wine was aged in stainless for two years while 8% of the wine was aged in American oak barrels, giving the wine a beautiful light yellow color and a hint of oaky smell and taste. This Pinot Gris was very fruit forward. Though I had a difficult time isolating the specific fruit notes in the wine, it reminded me of green apples and citrus fruit. After the initial fruity flavors, there was a hint of oak that lingered on the tongue and the wine finished with juicy, bright flavors. Hardly a dry white, this Pinot Gris was reminiscent of some Rieslings I’ve tried due to the sweetness and the juicy finish. The summer of 2009 in Eastern Washington, where this wine was grown, was particularly hot and was followed by a cool fall season, allowing the Pinot Gris grapes to hang on the vine longer, thereby maturing into fuller flavored grapes, lending Pinot Gris from this region a more fruit forward flavor.

*The difference between the terms Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris is a regional one, Pinot Grigio being the term used for this white wine grape in Italy. Pinot Gris/Grigio grapes are actually a “variant-clone” of Pinot Noir. The grape is light grey/blue to pinkish brown and is traditionally a very sweet grape. More West Coast wine makers are moving toward making Pinot Gris and in 2000, Pinot Gris production in Oregon actually surpassed that of Chardonnay, something that comes as great news for me!

You can now follow my blog with Bloglovin!

Columbia Crest's Horse Heaven Hills 2008 Merlot

For $11.99 at your local grocery store (I found mine at Fred Meyer), Columbia Crest's Horse Heaven Hills 2008 Merlot is a full-bodied and yet drinkably smooth merlot. This merlot smells heavily of tobacco and pepper with just a hint of cherry and, at first taste, is fruit-forward (opening with "aromas of raspberries" according to the Columbia Crest website) with a very smooth finish. I paired mine, ashamedly, with pizza and some streaming Netflix - a testament to the drinkability of the wine. Though this wine would likely be delicious with smoky/grilled red meats or even chicken, it is also a great table wine. As a big fan of merlots, this is one of the more full-bodied merlots I have had lately. At the end of the sip, the fullness leaves nothing to be desired, but, perhaps, another glass. Receiving 90 points from the Wine Spectator and consistently appearing on the Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines list, this wine is a great buy! Columbia Crest's Horse Heaven Hills wines have all earned high ratings in Wine Spectator (between 89-91 points) and come from the prolific Columbia Valley in Eastern Washington state. Though I haven't yet had a chance to taste the rest of the Horse Heaven Hills wines, I would recommend giving them a taste!


Interested in more official information about this wine? Check out the Columbia Crest website: http://www.columbiacrest.com/HorseHeavenHills/release/177.


And look forward to the next post where I'll be sampling and reviewing a Tapeña Vintage 2009 Tempranillo.