Wannabe Wino

Why we bought this bottle of wine. Dutcher Crossing was the first winery we stopped at on our honeymoon, so it might have been sheer excitement, or the notion that we had to buy at least a bottle or two from every winery we stopped at, or that we thought this was how Chardonnay was supposed to be. While we were big wine drinkers before we went to Sonoma for the first time, we honestly didn't drink a lot of California wines (how ironic given how many we drink now) and we mostly stuck unoaked white wines....

So we bought this bottle of 2005 Dutcher Crossing Chardonnay from Castello Vineyard for$26. It clocked in at 14.3% alcohol and had a real cork closure. On the nose it was all oak and butter at first and that took a while to blow off to reveal any other aromas. After a bit of time, I found lemon, vanilla, green apple, and a touch of pear. However, it was heavily dominated by the butter and oak. In the mouth I got flavors of lemon, pear, and oak. The wine was buttery overall and oaky. It was not at all a bad wine, just NMS. I much prefer unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay, this one was a little heavy for my taste.

I served it with cedar planked salmon and mashed potatoes. I forgot I had no veggies left that night, so nothing to go with it. The wine was actually a fairly good match for the food, since salmon and mashed potatoes are fairly heavy foods, and the wine's body matched nicely with the food.