Wannabe Wino

*Disclaimer: I received this wine from Michel Schlumberger as a sample to participate in the BinEndsWine Twitter Taste Line.

As you all probably know, I had the pleasure of co-hosting the most recent Twitter Taste Live with Michel Schlumberger and BinEndsWine in September. We had a great line up of wines for the evening, with the first being the 2006 Michel Schlumberger La Brume Chardonnay.

My dad picked up this bottle of 2007 Round Hill Chardonnay at Branford Wine and Spirits in Branford, CT. It clocked in at 13% alcohol by volume, had a plastic cork, and proudly states across the front label that it is "Oak free." From a quick search, I see that you can purchase it for about $8, making this a very good deal.

On the nose I found pineapple, lemon, apple, sweet tropical fruit, and a sense that the wine would be crisp. In the mouth the fruit from the nose followed through. The wine was light and very freshing, and indeed crisp. A great simple summer porch wine.

We are currently cleaning out some of the older whites that are hanging around in the basement. Our basement is a pretty good storage place, it stays fairly constant at about 62 degrees, but I don't believe it to be ideal for long term storage conditions. Not to mention it's hot here in DC so we have switched almost entirely to white wine for the summer and don't really have the largest selection of whites in the world!

So the wine for the night was a 2005 Hop Kiln Generations Chardonnay. It hails from the Russian River Valley, clocked in at 14.1% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost us $25.60 in a club shipment back when we were members. I do not think this wine saw any oak, as there didn't appear to be a hint of it in the flavors.

On the nose I found green apple, lemon, lime zest, and a sharp tropical fruit aroma. In the mouth the flavors were lime, pineapple, green apple, and a hint of a sweet honey note. The wine was crisp in the mouth, but it seemed that the alcohol content wasn't in balance with the relatively delicate flavors of an unoaked Chardonnay. It tasted a bit alcoholic to me.

When we did our basement re-org back in March, it came to light that we had quite a few old white wines hanging around. I have no idea how I forgot about them, or why they weren't in CellarTracker, but there you have it. We've been trying to drink through them before they get too old.

With that in mind, the wine for the evening was a 2004 Fritz Chardonnay. It hails from the Russian River Valley, clocked in at 14.2% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and since it wasn't recorded, I have no idea what it cost, though I'd venture a guess in the mid $20s. I believe it probably came in a club shipment back when we were members.

I first noticed the strong aroma and dark yellow color of the wine. It was easy to tell this was an older white. The nose smelled of citrus, lemon, apple, pineapple, oak, caramel, and spice. In the mouth I found pineapple, green apple, oak, and citrus. The wine was heavy in the mouth, and it was well structured.

Overall, I'd say if you managed to hang onto this one all these years, drink it up. It was starting to lose the flavors in the mouth.

*Disclaimer: I received this bottle of wine as part of a blogger trial of Bottlenotes.

The bottle was a 2006 Catello Banfi Le Rime Chardonnay-Pinot Grigio. I can't say I have ever seen such a mix before, but I was intrigued and couldn't wait to try it. In fact, delinquent blogger that I am, I tried this wine months ago and simply let the notes get lost among the now well over 500 posts on Wannabe Wino.

The wine hails from Tuscany, clocked in at 12% alcohol by volume, and can be purchased from Bottlenotes for $10! I don't think the wine saw oak, though I did see some creamy tendencies in it...maybe it went through a little malo or it's just the influence of the Chardonnay?

On the nose I found creamy vanilla, lemon, tropical fruit, and pineapple. The nose was very light, and it took some serious sniffing on my part to tease out some flavors. In the mouth the wine was crisp and light, it showed a little lemon, peach, pineapple, and tropical fruit. I sort of expected it to be oaky after the creamy nose, so the crisp mouth feel really surprised me. This was an interesting bottle, and for the price, definitely something to be tried for the novelty of the blend.

Can you guess who took this picture? :)

Despite having lived in Connecticut for the vast majority of my life, I had never had a chance to taste wine from the state before this Christmas. While spending a lengthy holiday visiting my family, Matt and I decided to hit up a vineyard in the town next to my parents' house to see what CT wine is all about. Now, I've heard of others reporting back on CT wine, even Dr. Debs on the west coast has had some! So it was high time I got my act together.

We went early one morning to visit Chamard Vineyards in Clinton, Connecticut. Chamard is one of the oldest vineyards in CT, and benefits from the cooling effects of Long Island Sound in growing their grapes. They also source some of their fruit from Long Island.

One of the bottles we brought home was a Chamard 2003 Chardonnay American Table Wine. It clocked in at 12.5% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost us

On the nose of the wine I found pineapple, toast, cedar, and lemon. The wine was oaked, but that was not the primary aroma at all, which is a very good thing in my opinion. I prefer "naked" chardonnay, but I do believe that oak can be done very well if the winemaker is not heavy handed with it. In the mouth I found apple, pear, and pineapple. Again, the wine had a toasty sense from the oak, but it was just that, toast, with none of the butter slathered on a wood plank feeling that oaked Chardonnay sometimes leans to. The wine was very smooth in the mouth and drinking very well.

We picked up several bottles of this, some Pinot Blanc, and some Rose. Charmard had really pretty grounds, and I would love to return when everything is in bloom!

Sometimes wine just gets lost in my basement. I don't know how it happens, because I'm fairly vigilant about entering my shipments into CellarTracker as they arrive, but, as you know, the best laid plans....

So that is how it came to be that this bottle of 2004 Alderbrook Chardonnay somehow escaped me. It's possible it's been hiding down there for almost 2 years now. I found it the other night when looking for a Zinfandel that I SWORE was down there, but alas, I could not find. Perhaps I have wine elves that move things around just to drive me nuts. Whatever the case may be, this wine had a real cork, clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, and cost us $14.80 either in a club shipment or at the winery.

On the nose I found apple, pineapple, slight cream, and oak spice. In the mouth, the wine was crisp with a bit of oak. I got flavors of lemon and apple. This was a simple Chardonnay, not too oaky at all, which is good, I don't much care for the oaky ones, and was an easy wine to drink on a weeknight.

The wine for the evening was a Linden Vineyards 2005 Avenius Chardonnay. It clocked in at 12.8% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure. This was a gift from a guest at our PS tasting back in December.

On the nose of the wine I found pear, oak, butter, and toast. Or perhaps buttered toast. In the mouth the flavors were entirely of pear and apple. The wine had a slightly oily mouthfeel, and the flavors were smooth.

Overall I thought this was a well done VA white. It was not overpowered by the oak and butter that I found on the nose, but seemed to have just enough oak to give it a full body.

I served the wine with spaghetti carbonara, a recipe I was trying for the first time. I'm not sure if it was the recipe, or if I did something wrong, but it was quite dry. I don't expect my carbonara to be creamy per se, but this was just dry. I got the recipe from my Silver Spoon cookbook. I don't think I'll try that one again, but I will keep looking for a good recipe, carbonara is one of Matt's favorite dishes.

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.

Neil of Brooklyn Guy's Wine and Food Blog is our host for this monthly installment of Wine Blogging Wednesday, the brainchild of Lenn of Lenndevours. The theme Neil has set for us this month is Silver Burgundy, by which he was referring to wines from Cote Chalonnaise or the Maconnais. Other than Chablis or Beaujolais, we had free reign to choose a wine. Neil gave the slight suggestion that great wines could be found for between $12-$25, so off I went to The Winery in Old Town Alexandria (my new favorite wine shop!) in search of a fitting bottle.

I found a bottle of 2005 Jean Manciat Macon Charnay White Burgundy Wine. Otherwise, the bottle proclaims Appellation Macon Charnay Controlee Franclieu. I'm not very good at reading these bottles, I rely on Marcus for that! The wine clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost me $15.99 at The Winery. I understand from the owner of The Winery (excellent lady with great wine suggestions every time we visit) that the wine is made from Chardonnay grapes. Which, after a quick search, I find that Neil actually drank this wine in May!

On the nose of the wine I found lemon, lemon rind, spice, minerals, and a slight tropical aroma, The wine smells very crisp and acidic and I looked forward to tasting it. In the mouth the wine was dry, acidic, and tart. I found lemons, minerals, wet stone, and a little bit of pineapple. Overall I though the wine was really well done.

This is my kind of chardonnay, it definitely didn't see any oak, so it fits back with WBW of past "Get Naked" theme from Lenn for WBW's 3rd birthday. I would definitely buy this bottle again, an excellent value for the price and a style of wine that is right up my alley!

Thanks very much to Neil for hosting and once again sending me outside of my norm of wine drinking window and getting me to try something new. I look forward to reading the round-up and hope Neil doesn't set the bar too high for when I host next month!

And I definitely like Mosaic Chardonnay. We picked this bottle of 2004 Mosaic Chardonnay up at the winery on our first trip to Sonoma. It somehow got lost in the shuffle of multiple moves and reorgs, and thus escaped me until now. I believe the bottle cost us $16 and had a real cork closure. Matt tossed the bottle before I could record the acv.

On the nose I found pineapple, lemon, slight oak and butter, and spiced vanilla. In the mouth the wine was surprisingly crisp with citrus, white grapefruit, tart apple, and a butter note. Overall the wine was tangy and refreshing.

I don't think I tasted at Mosaic as I was our designated driver for our trip (and I believe we had already been to 6 vineyards by this stop so I didn't think even spitting was a good cal at this point), so I let Matt pick the wines from this stop...sometimes a dangerous proposition since he likes really sweet wines a lot and I do not. But he definitely gets an A for effort with this bottle given the price point! I think the other place where I left the decision totally up to him was Mauritson and there we ended up taking home over a case of wine and joining the club, also an excellent decision!

I served the wine with parmasean baked tilapia and fruit salad. Definitely a good match for the fish, the flavors paired nicely with the flaky white fish and tangy parmasean.

I crack myself up sometimes (and yes, I laugh at myself frequently...hey, at least I'm amusing someone....). But really, the was the first thought I had at the producer name "Frank Family." The wine of the evening was a 2005 Frank Family Chardonnay. This bottle was a gift from my dear friend Lindsay who very kindly sent me some wine for my birthday and tells me that this is her favorite Chardonnay ever.

The wine had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.4% alcohol by volume, and and had a really cool bottle with the picture printed right on the bottle....I'm not sure my photography skills can do it justice. The bottle hails from Calistoga, CA.

On the nose I found vanilla spice, apples, toffee and oak. The aroma was nice and intriguing and I had to keep my nose in there for a while before I finally realized it was toffee I was smelling (toffee a.) isn't something I smell anywhere very often and b.) isn't something I've found in wine before). In the mouth I found slightly buttery apples, pears, and minerals.

Overall the wine was smooth and creamy. It made for some very easy drinking. I preferred it on it's own as opposed to with the dinner I prepared. I made a very creamy dish I call chicken roll-ups, and I think the cream needed a more acidic wine to cut through it. The wine got a thumbs up from both Matt and I on it's own after dinner.

Thanks Linds! :)

We picked this bottle of wine up at Corcoran Vineyards (formerly Waterford Vineyards) in VA when we took my brother in law and sister in law wine tasting last month. The wine is a 2005 Waterford Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay (as it was bottled before the name change was necessitated by a large corporation knocking on the door) and cost us $18. It had a plastic cork and clocked in at a mere 12% alcohol, very good for a weeknight wine!

The wine was fermented mostly in stainless tanks, and I believe put in neutral oak for a short period to finish it.

On the nose I found lemon, slight oak, green apple, and pear. In the mouth, the wine was smooth, with none of the oak flavor. I got flavors of lemon, lime, and green apple. The wine had a very nice finish and a creamy mouthfeel. Another good white offering from a VA winery.

I have to say that in my now over 4 years tasting in VA, the wines have come a very long way, and I am now routinely impressed by the various vineyards we visit. Hopefully we will have a chance to get to different parts of VA wine country this fall!

Yes, I served bratwurst with Roshambo 2004 Imago Chardonnay. Not an elegant match to say the least, what can I say? I'm not always going for the perfect pair!

The wine came in a club shipment, cost us $15.20, had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 13.9% alcohol by volume.

On the nose I found lemon, minerals, wet stone, and pineapple. The nose was crisp and clean. In the mouth, lemons, pineapples, sweet orange. Overall the wine was crisp in the mouth with a nice finish. In typically me style in my tasting notes, I wrote "me likey" as my final note What can I say? Eloquent I am not always.

Very good value wine for the price on this one. (Another non-oaked Chardonnay, seems to be the theme these last few months!)

(Okay, that sounds a bit ominous.)

I found this bottle of 2005 Fritz Chardonnay hiding in our basement when Matt and I were reorganizing the wine last weekend. A surprise to me, as I thought I had written up all the white wines in my collection.

The wine had a real cork closure, clocked in at 14.2% alcohol by volume, and cost us $20 in a club shipment.

On the nose I found lemon, oak, butter, vanilla cream, and apple. In the mouth I found the wine to be buttery and oaky. Additionally, I got lemons, peach and more oak in the mouth. Overall, this was an oaky, buttery Chardonnay. It wasn't flabby or anything, but I was overwhelmed by the butter and oak. It's just NMS.

I was not impressed with this bottle of wine. It was a 2004 Marimar Don Miguel Vineyard Dobles Lias Unfiltered Chardonnay. At a price point near $40, I really expect a very good bottle of wine that has some depth and complexity. While this was not a bad bottle of wine, it just wasn't a lot for the money.

It had a real cork closure, hailed from the Russian River Valley and clocked in at 14.1% alcohol by volume. The wine came in a club shipment.

I got wood, lemon and flowers on the nose. In the mouth there was lingering lemon and ginger. The whole wine was buttery and a bit on the oaky side. NMS of Chardonnay.

Moving really screwed up my entering shipments of wine into Cellartracker. So when it came time for WBW 36 I thought my only "naked" Chardonnay was the one I had just purchased at Breaux Vineyard. I was mistaken and overlooked this bottle of 2006 Marimar Estates Acero Chardonnay from Don Miguel Vineyard in the Russian River Valley.

The wine came in a club shipment, cost $29 minus a club discount and was 14.2% alcohol by volume, on the higher end for a white wine in my experience. It also had a screw-cap as this is a lower-end Marimar production.

I'm beginning to think that my nose might be off these days. On the nose of the wine I was knocked over to find an overwhelming aroma of peanut butter. I thought I was losing my mind, but Matt concurred with my assessment. Under the peanut butter was lemon, green apple, and pineapple with a touch of cream. In the mouth I found green apples and lemons. Overall I would say the mouthfeel of this wine was tingly, almost as if it had tiny bubbles in it. The wine was crisp, but smooth at the end. A pretty good bottle of naked Chardonnay.

I thought that for sure I had consumed my last bottle from WineQ that was hanging out in my cellar. But again, my lack of organizational skills caused me to lose track of this bottle of 2005 Egret Chardonnay.

The bottle had a plastic cork, cost us $14.99 (free shipping!) through WineQ, and was 14.4% alcohol by volume.

On the nose there was a smell of slight oak and yeast, followed by lemons and a strong scent of apples. In the mouth I didn't find any of the oak that I got on the nose. It was creamy up front with a crisp finish. The major flavors were citrus and apples.

Overall, the wine had a great structure and balance. It made the perfect sipping wine for a deadly hot Washington evening. We did drink it alone, though I'd love it with some mild creamy cheese. An excellent value.

This month's WBW is hosted by none other than the founder of WBW, Lenn of Lenndevours fame. As the theme for this month, we were tasked to find a "naked," meaning unoaked, bottle of Chardonnay.

Not a hard theme for me to go along with. I much prefer the unoaked (or very lightly oaked) style of Chardonnay myself. If I really wanted to chew on a tree I'd head out to my backyard. For quite a while I was actually an "anything but Chardonnay" wine drinker as all I'd been exposed to were overoaked monsters. Then I discovered the absolute joy of Chardonnay done in a lightly oaked or unoaked style. Though to be honest, I will still avoid the Chardonnay at most weddings and parties as I live in perpetual fear of getting a mouthful of buttered oak from those!

So the wine. For this month's WBW, I headed to the roots of my current home and went for a Virginia Chardonnay. I tend to be of the opinion that Virginia does whites a lot better than it does its reds and my pick for this month was no exception to the success I've had with VA white wines.

I chose a bottle of Breaux Vineyards 2005 Madeleine's Chardonnay. It clocked in at 13.2% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost us $16.90. You can find it online through the vineyard for the same price. We picked this bottle up on our recent visit to Breaux's Key West Wine Festival, a post I hope to write up shortly.

The wine was steel fermented and I can find no mention that it spent any time at all in oak, unlike the bottle I drank last night that I was really excited about only to find that after the steel fermenting it spent several months in oak. So I'll save that one for another post.

Madeleine's Chardonnay showed aromas of honey, lemon, tropical fruit, and pears on the nose. The aroma was light and pleasant. In the mouth the wine was smooth with a touch of creaminess and had a round finish. The predominant flavor in the mouth was pear with just a touch of the honey from the nose. Straightforward in the mouth and easy to drink, with a slight lingering sweetness.

We drank the wine with ham and cheese omelets and it fared okay with the meal. I think it would do well on it's own or with a fruit and cheese appetizer. I was supposed to serve it with grilled pork chops and rice pilaf, but the pork chops were still frozen solid when I got home. I'm glad I didn't though, because I think the delicate flavors would have been overpowered by that meal.

Overall, a good value for the money and a wine I would certainly get again.

Thanks very much to Lenn for hosting this month's WBW! I'll certainly be looking forward to the round-up in hopes of discovering lots of great naked wine for the remainder of our hot summer in DC!

PS-Happy Anniversary to WBW and many congrats to Lenn on his successful continuation of this monthly event!

I was going to do a nice post today for my 300 post on Wannabe Wino about the past 8 months and all that jazz, but just discovered that the theme for WBW #36 has been posted. And, it's for the 3 year anniversary of WBW, so I would guess that should be a good enough topic for my 300th post!

Lenn of Lenndevours (some of you may have heard of the founder of WBW :)!) is hosting for us for this, the 3rd anniversary of WBW. Congrats to Lenn for starting something so great that has continued on in the blog world for that long!

Our theme for the month is Let's Get Naked! Turn those dirty minds off, there will be no naked pictures on all the wine blogs come the due date of August 8! Instead, Lenn would like everyone to get out there and find a bottle of unoaked Chardonnay. No other requirements, just that the wine has seen no oak. I love this theme, as I have many unoaked Chardonnays in the basement just begging to be consumed.

Lenn has also announced the release of a new central meeting place for all things WBW-related, Wine Blogging Wednesday Community, in addition to a new board of wine bloggers to help him manage WBW. Not to mention that there's a competition going to design a new label for WBW! Lots of news this month. You can read all about it here on Lenndevours.

Oh, and please do stop by My Wine Education to read the excellent round-up of Spanish wines from WBW #35. The reviews are all up, and Michelle and Kevin did a fantastic job. Thanks again for hosting.