2009 Mirth Chardonnay
Sheesh! What have I been up to? The summer is supposed to be all laid back and everything, but it seems like each week is filled with weddings, birthdays (of the kid sort, now) and the never-ending “gonna get organized” proclamations. Not that I’m complaining, with the exception of the whole family catching a bit of a cold, life is pretty grand. And, for real, how can I complain when I am trying some super cool and affordable Chardonnay like the aforementioned 2009 Mirth from the Corvidae Winery.
We roasted up a whole chicken and felt like the wine would still make it feel kinda like summer here, despite all the fog that covered the sky (and sun) above us. Turned out to be a great mix for the food and the weather. I picked up Apples, some bell pepper and lime. There was a medium to low herb and a pleasant finish with just a hint of heat.
No more excuses, just more cheap (only in the monetary sense) wine and sunny days ahead. Go!
L’ Ecole No 41 2008 Columbia Valley “Walla Voila” Chenin Blanc
Just made it back from an awesome trip up to Washington State where we saw family, attended a beautiful wedding and made it a mission drink up some WA wines. I picked up a box of some value wines thanks to a big sale at Huckleberry’s. They are due to arrive in Bay Area any day. But in the meantime, i’ll cover what I tried while on our trip (you don’t take vacations with a kid) to the Pacific Northwest.
While my dad’s true passion is Scotch, he has a modest collection of wines mostly from our home state. Knowing my interest, he asked me to pick out some bottles that I would want to try. The L’ Ecole label is one that had always stood out in my mind. I couldn’t tell if I should take it seriously, with the crayon drawings and Comic Sans font. But I stood there looking over the wines, exhausted from a state wide drive and I said, what better time than now.
I picked the Chenin Blanc because it seemed like a happy medium from a desire to start drinking summer wines, while the reality was mild humidity, overcast skies and ca need for a hoodie as the evening fell.
Sadly, this wine was kinda lousy. It was more sweet then I had anticipated, heavy tropic fruits (pineapple from a can), a lot of acid and heat going down. Rather than looking forward to the next sip, all i could think was “what the hell is going on with this” and “Tums”. We all powered through the bottle, quietly eating our turkey sandwiches and watching Die Hard 2 around the TV.
Oh well, on a positive, while looking up info for this post I came across WAwineman’s Muses on Wine. Super great blog, and it gave me the courage to pan a wine for the first time.
Yippie Ki-Yay MF’ers!
