Backyards and BBQ’s are known as tha bomb during the summer. Indeed, there should some sort of official right of passage, whereby one has enjoyed a tasty, home-hosted BBQ by the time one comes of age. And it becomes that much better when paired with wine. Trust me. I mean, microbrews and certain import beers are cool and all, but BBQ beef with a great Rhone or Syrah and BBQ chicken (beer battered!) with a tasty Chardonnay pretty much makes my day…or my week, even.
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TasteLive! (Twitter, WineLog), the premiere social network for online, Twitter-based virtual wine tastings, is back at it again this week, with a great online tasting tomorrow night (07/12/11) at 6pm – 7pm PST. Here we’ll try three Chardonnay from California that have the complexity, weight and fruit that can stand up to the awesome BBQ spread that you should have at your table some weekend this summer. Two of these wineries had wines in the last great tasting in which I was able to participate, courtesy of my samples from the website. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from tasting the Pinot and Chardonnay from these four wineries, I’ve been most impressed by the still wines produced by Gloria Ferrer Winery (Twitter, WineLog). Their wines not only show a high level of value and QPRWK, but they also plain put out the good stuff in wine: they’re sensual and balanced, with restrained power.
You can find all of the wines that we’re tasting tomorrow night for listing in your own WineLog, tagged with “TasteLive2011ChardGrill“. All of the wines that I’ve tasted during TasteLive events over the years can be found tagged with “TasteLive“. Even if you don’t have the wines handy, log on to Twitter and catch the #tl_wine stream and participate!
TasteLive2011ChardGrill:
Gloria Ferrer Carneros Estate Chardonnay 2008
Color: Deeper yellow with green highlights and clear edges.
Nose: Very bright, happy pear juicy yellow apple with more subdued Meyer lemon and some interesting basil leaf and lightest cream.
Palate: Medium full, with great acidity that is brought out by the Meyer lemon here as well and a roundness that adds some smooth, slightly creamy complexity. Juicy bright pear and yellow apple here as well, finishing with riper pear and the lightest toast. Good.
Krutz Family Cellars Santa Lucia Highlands Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Chardonnay 2008
Color: Deeper yellow gold, light gold edges.
Nose: A bit more toast here, with some tasty nectarine and pear skin followed by some cream strolling in and light pear.
Palate: Fuller and very round and super-smooth, with light green and yellow apple, medium cream but bright acidity with pineapple to balance out the cream and the medium toast out to the finish. Good.
Rodney Strong Vineyards Chalk Hill Estate Chardonnay 2009
Color: Deeper canary yellow with golden undertones, viscous.
Nose: Butter and toast, with ripe, preserved pears underneath and lemon meringue.
Palate: Full and very buttery and toasty here as well, with tons of those pears from the nose along with yellow apple pie out to the buttery and toasty finish. A viscous, coating mouth with juiciness, but an imbalance is here, with the acidity unable to hold up to the toast and butter.
March 24, 2012
I thought the Planet Bordeaux wines were way bteter than the Whole Foods ones.That being said, I was not 100% healthy for the Whole Foods tasting, so I clearly have a skewed perspective. Then again, the legitimate argument might be that the Superieur wines (sorry, don’t know an easy way to add an accent on a windows machine) may give us a perception of higher-quality, because they are higher in alcohol, generally aged longer, and tend to offer more characteristics of a new world wine, upon which our palates have been weaned.