Chardonnay
Chardonnay is sold as a varietal in the US and New World countries (usually oaked), but maintains an unoaked tradition in Old World countries as well. The Chardonnay grape shows off flavors of apple, pear, citrus fruits, pineapple, peach, melon, butter, honey, butterscotch, vanilla, spice, and minerals and flint in the Old World versions. It tends to be high in alcohol with moderate acidity.
Cheeses that work well with Chardonnay are Cheddar, buttery Brie, Beaufort and other salty mountain types, Stilton, Swiss, Dry Jack, Gouda, Gruyère, and harder sheep's milk cheeses.
Aquinas Napa Valley 2004 (Tasted in 2006) 13.5% alcohol. This wine was named for St. Thomas Aquinas (pronounced a-kwine-as), who was "a revolutionary scholar in the 13th century who used the laws of science to support his belief in the existence of the Almighty." This wine is made by Richard Bruno and is part of the Sebastiani line of wines. There is partial malo-lactic fermentation that gives the wine a smooth, creamy finish. It has light tropical flavors and a touch of French Oak. This is one of those wines that definitely has all the tropical flavors and creaminess, as the bottle says, but also that zing of bitterness that I like to call "kiwi." It reminds me of how a kiwi fruit is all juicy, full, and exotic tasting, and then bitter on the finish. This wine would be great with a creamy alfredo dish or semi-soft cheeses.
*Aquinas with Trugole. Wow! I just threw these two together and they worked out great. The cheese is an Asiago style of slightly floral milk from northeastern Italy. It has a creamy texture and flavor, which works well with the intense flavors in the wine. It seems to calm the wine down a little bit. They balance each other out and suddenly, the light, aromatic grass flavors and hints of flowers come out in the cheese, all the while letting the wine show its stuff.
Chablis Domaine Jean-Claude Martin 2000 12.5% alcohol. Very dry. Very tart. High acidity. It may be good with a goat cheese.
Chablis Domaine Jean-Claude Martin with Fromage d'Affinois. Horrible together! I'm getting goosebumps just writing about it. This wine is way too acidic for this buttery cheese. Buttery Chardonnays are supposed to go with bries better.
Chablis Domaine Jean-Claude Martin with Pierre-Robert. All I taste afterwards is dry mouth and rotten milk. Again, this Chardonnay wasn't buttery enough to stand up to this big brie type.
Chablis Francine et Olivier Savary 2002 (Tasted in 2004) $8.29 at Homegrown Special Foods in Birmingham, Alabama. 12.5% alcohol. from Maligny in Chablis, France. On the back of the bottle, it says, "Good wine is a necessity of life for me" -Thomas Jefferson . Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, who also was the one to "select" the Côtes du Rhône that I got from the same store. Caroline, at the store, thought that the Chablis might go with the Reblochon I bought there. It looks like I drank this and didn't take cheese notes. I remember this wine was extremely dry and minerally.
Château St. Jean 2001 (Tasted in 2003) From Sonoma. 13.4% alcohol. Crisp, tangy, fruity, light buttery oak, butter aftertaste of kiwi and fruit. I guess I didn't taste cheese with it.
Columbia Crest Grand Estates 2001 (Tasted in 2004) $8.79 at Far West HEB. Columbia Valley in Washington. 13.5% alcohol. This wine is supposed to be less oaky than the ones from California. This came highly recommended from Joshua at Block. This was very good. It tasted a little French. It doesn't have too much wood. Bright, citrusy, fruity. I taste some melons and apples. It smells like grapefruit. This Chardonnay is tarter and crisper than most, but it is still smooth. It tastes very cold climate. Maybe that's why it tastes French. I taste some soft wood in the finish. It is good.
Columbia Crest and Aged Goat Gouda. This is ok together. I like the tartness of the wine and the cheese. There is some bitterness in the aftertaste. This goat Gouda is so good. It's lightly goaty, tangy, sharp, salty, and nutty. It also has a little bit of grass and butterscotch. It is nice with the wine, but the wine overpowers a little bit. This wine might go better with a younger goat cheese, or one that is not quite so piquant. The cheese tastes a little bit like toasted nuts. Maybe it would go better with a "toasty oak" Chardonnay.
Columbia Crest and Gruyère, Swiss Antique. These are interesting at first, but then, yuck. The wine brings out a lot of spice in the cheese. The cheese makes the wine taste very fruity and thick. It is all good until it settles in on your tongue. Then it tastes like drinking milk after lemonade. Maybe a buttery Chardonnay would work better with this Gruyère.
Columbia Crest and HEB Extra Sharp Cheddar. Never fails that I like this cheap Cheddar with Chardonnay. I get such a nice nutty and lightly grassy flavor. The wine really improves the Cheddar. It is good anyway, but it almost starts to taste like a British Cheddar with the wine. It is like having apples and almonds together. The cheese brings out the crispness in the wine.
Columbia Crest and Mozzarella Company Triple Creme Cheese. These were a slightly bitter together, but not too bad. In the aftertaste, it is like having lemon cream tart. The wine definitely overpowers the cheese, but I still get a lingering milky taste from the cheese that brings out nice citrus in the wine.
Domaine Petit Château Vin de Pays du Jardin de la France 2003 (Tasted in 2006) $9.99 at Grapevine Market. 12% alcohol. "Delicate Wood Aging" This is another wine imported by Vineyard Brands based in Birmingham, AL, my home town. I loved this wine and it was exactly what I was looking for when I walked in the store -- inexpensive, light, fruity, and full of minerality. Its bottle age hadn't take its toll on the wine at all. The woman doing the pouring likened it to a Chablis, but it's really just a vin de pays. This is one of those seasalty, dry wines that I love. Light apple and lemon fruit, touch of vanilla, light bitterness on the finish. This bottle disappeared before I had time to really evaluate it, but I'll definitely buy it again, especially for this price. From the Loire Valley, so no wonder it has so much minerality.
*Domaine Petit Château with Texas Goat Cheese by the Dallas Mozzarella Company. I love this line-up. Could a goat really pair so well with a Chardonnay? Especially when they come from countries that hate each other? Apparently so. They are so much fun together. The wine and cheese are both bright and zingy, and each possesses a delicate creaminess that helps them compliment each other so well. Lemon cream. When I taste them together, I imagine a light yellow color. This is excellent. It was almost so good, I felt like I couldn't describe it. I guess what I really liked was the acidity in both the cheese and the wine, and then the light vanilla flavor in the wine along with the rich milk in the cheese. This cheese also went really well with Cava.
Edna Valley Vineyard Chardonnay 2004 (Tasted in 2005) $11.99 at World Market. It's usually $13.99. 13.9% alcohol. Paragon, from the Edna Valley in San Luis Obispo County in CA. The label claims that this wine enjoys one of California's longest and coolest growing seasons because of sea breezes that are funneled inland through Edna Valley. "The grapes' extended hangtime gives the Chardonnay flavors of lush white peach and sweet spice, while the ancient subsoils impart a subtle mineral component." They don't manipulate the grapes extensively and use new French oak. The vineyard is located just 5 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The fogs come in at night and cool the grapes, allowing them to ripen and retain acidity. The wine is very light and almost green in color. Aromas of apples and peaches, plus a smell that is sweet and almost floral. It definitely tastes like a Chardonnay, though it is not overwhelmingly oaky. I get some tropical fruits, but they are light, and there is a nice creamy mouthfeel. I don't taste as much acidity and minerality as I was hoping, but there is a nice bite at the end, that is probably just the tropical flavor. It's good. Long finish. Aromatic on the end, almost like honeysuckle.
*Edna Valley Vineyard Chardonnay with Crottin de Chavignol. I just happened to taste these together and they were wonderful! I never would have paired them up, but the cheese is so nice and tangy and nutty, and then all the sudden I get such lush fruit from the wine. There is no clashing at all. The wine brings out the best in the cheese, and then the cheese makes the wine taste almost like some sort of chutney spread. And the salty cheese plus all that fruit -- boy is this good. I never would have put these together. It's good in the way a Cheddar and Chardonnay are -- tangy, salty and nutty plus fruity and creamy. I think I will never put this cheese with a Sauvignon Blanc again after tasting this. Exciting and weird, without being offensive.
Edna Valley Vineyard Chardonnay with Fleur Verte. Herbed goat cheese. The herbs wipe out the taste of the wine. They don't bring out any great flavors. I get a huge licorice taste from the herbs, I think probably from tarragon. It's not a horrible pairing, but just not so exciting. This cheese goes best with a Mâcon Chardonnay.
Edna Valley Vineyard Chardonnay with Fromage d'Affinois. This is a mild and creamy Brie style cheese from France. This is supposed to be a classic pairing. Somehow I think it won't work. I was right. It tastes too chalky and the mold makes a bitterness with the biting tropical flavors in the wine.
Edna Valley Vineyard Chardonnay with Lincolnshire Poacher. Cheddar style of cheese. Very good, but nowhere near as good as the Crottin. This was passable, but this cheese likes a red wine better.
Fisher Vineyards 2001 (Tasted in 2004). $22.50 at Austin Wine Merchant. Normally it retails for $32. 14.9% alcohol. http://www.fishervineyards.com Coach Insignia Chardonnay. I wasn't planning on buying any Chardonnay, but I really enjoyed this wine at the Saturday tasting, and it wasn't too expensive. My first impression of it was that it was medium-bodied, smooth, well-balanced, and creamy. It is called Coach Insignia and has a tiny carriage on the label. Their website says that it is has expansive aromas, exotic fruit with hint of butterscotch. Lively lush and smooth with rich mouth feel and a long lingering finish. From their website: "A pure 100% Chardonnay blended from grapes selected from different blocks of vines here on our mountain, where the elevation ranges from 1,100 - 1,500 feet, where some vineyards face north and others south. Grapes are brought into the winery early in the day, whole-cluster pressed, and delivered to barrels in the cave by gravity flow. They ferment in French oak barrels and rest on the lees for 10 months before they are racked and bottled. The style is rich and complex, while maintaining high acidity and mature fresh fruit." This comes from the Russian River and Carneros in Napa.
Hahn Estates 2003 $11.99 at Grapevine. 13.5% alcohol. Monterey Chardonnay. The label has a rooster on it. Hahn in German means "rooster." These wines are supposed to be enjoyable upon release. This is billed as being a typical modern California style. The grapes are grown in two vineyards in the Monterey area of California. In the Lone Oak Vineyard (Santa Lucia Highlands), where the grapes are grown in the cooler air, rendering fresher tasting wine. The grapes from the Ste. Philippe Vineyard on the Salinas Valley floor give the wine body and breadth. Hahn makes wines using techniques developed in Burgundy, France, including ageing and fermenting the wine in French oak barrels. The result is a wine with a rich and creamy texture. Monterey isn't subject to temperamental weather, so the wine quality is more consistent year to year. It has aromas of pineapples, baked pears, vanilla, and butterscotch. It is a dry and medium to full-bodied wine. Medium yellow color. I had asked a wine rep to show me a Chardonnay that was popular and that was the typical style of what America likes, and he picked this one. It is less aromatic than it is flavorful. It doesn't have an extreme amount of oak, but it has a very strong flavor of alcohol and buttery fruit. It tastes pretty intense.
Hahn with Fleur Vert. Herbed goat cheese. This doesn't clash, but the wine tastes extremely sweet and thick with this cheese. It's not a good match.
*Hahn with Gouda, 2 year. Excellent. Boy, everything is going with this wine. The cheese is creamy and salty, and then wine, fruity and rich.
*Hahn with Red Hawk Triple Crème Organic Washed Rind Brie. This is a rustic tripe crème with a stinky, woody, dirty tasting rind. This is actually good together. The woody flavor in the rind is really nice with the wood in the rind, and again, this wine tones down some of the heavy fruit and alcohol. It is really really good together. I never would have thought it would have been good, but it's excellent. It is a perfect blend of wood, fruit, and cream, and it all comes from California. I also love the textures together -- the creamy wine and creamy cheese, but with that sticky, gritty rind.
*Hahn with Seal Bay Triple Cream Brie. Super creamy Brie with not too much of a funky rind on it. Very good together. This is the perfect Brie to go with this Chardonnay. Sometimes I have trouble finding a Brie that will work. With its woody, moldy rind, the cheese cuts down on some of the heavy fruit and alcohol in the wine. The nice creamy, full-bodied cheese is a nice match for the similar-bodied wine. The creamy buttery cheese tastes so great behind the tart, tropical fruit.
Hahn with Vella Dry Jack. Pretty good. A little bitter. It's sort of a mismatch.
Haras Chardonnay 2001 About $11 at Deb's Liquors. 13.6% alcohol. This is from the Maipo valley in Chile. The label has a Leonardo da Vinci drawing of a horse on it. The wine is chartreuse-colored, fermented in French oak and stainless steel. It is creamy in texture, balanced, with interesting aromas and flavors. http://www.harasdepirque.com. In the pictures on their site, their ranch is in the shape of a horse shoe and they raise horses, apparently. They have some pictures of their show-horses. The grapes are harvested at the end of March. The wine is held on the lees for 8 months and racked weekly. The mixture is made in November. 15% of the blend is with malolactic fermentation. It is a deep golden yellow color with greenish highlights. It definitely smells like honey. They describe it as also being caramel and toffee. I can see where it is toffee-like. It also has some apricot flavors. Ripe and creamy. Minerals in the finish. The mineral and earthy tones come from the rocky piedmont soils where the vines grow.
Haras 2001 with Amsterdam Reserve Aged Gouda. This is the saltier of the two Goudas. I thought maybe, since this has some honey and caramel flavors in it, it might go with these nutty, butterscotch cheeses. This cheese is more roasted and nutty tasting than Old Amsterdam. It's ok together at first, but the aftertaste is bitter. The cheese seems too strong for this wine. I thought maybe it was too much mineral in the wine, but no, this type of cheese goes well with Rieslings.
Haras 2001 with Old Amsterdam Aged Gouda. This is good, though also bitter on the finish. This cheese is milder and more subtle in its various flavors. It tastes smoother, so it matches the creamy texture of the wine. These are pretty good together. The finish of this cheese is long and smooth, and so is the wine's. It's not perfect, but it's pleasant.
Haras 2001 with Beaufort d'Alpage. I have never tried this type of cheese with a Chardonnay, so here it is. The cheese is a spicy mountain cheese in the style of Gruyère. It has an herbal flavor with an animal aftertaste. This combo makes my ears itch. The cheese is fruity enough to be interesting with the wine. I think I like this combo better than this wine with the Goudas. The wine is fresh and cooling with this hot cheese. I like the contrast in the two. The cheese overpowers, but it's not bad.
Jewel Collection 2002 $8.99 at Grapevine. This is from California. 13.5% alcohol. Rich fruit and good structure. I love this Chardonnay. It tastes very French. It is lightly oaky, not buttery. Melon and a little bit of spice. It is very light and easy, and has nice acidity. No aftertaste at all. No bitterness. I really liked this wine a lot, especially for the price. Also good was the Jewel Petite Syrah.
Jewel 2002 with Leerdammer Swiss. This is not so great together. It is ok, but there is some bitterness. It is boring. It wouldn't be the end of the world at a party, but I would not pair them.
Jewel 2002 with Maytag blue. This cheese is burning my tongue! It is creamy, but also very salty. This causes a gross aftertaste, but the cheese is so spicy, salty, and crazy, and the wine so tart, that for some reason it seems ok together.
La Noble Chardonnay 2001 (Tasted in 2004) Vin de Pays de l'Aude. $7.99 at Grapevine. 13% alcohol. Oops, I drank this and didn't take notes.
Martin and Weyrich Chardonnay 14.1% alcohol. Central Coast Chardonnay. Unoaked. Inexpensive (under $9 a bottle.) I like this. It definitely tastes like Chardonnay, high alcohol burn. It has some spice, almost like ginger and lemon, like a Lebkuchen. Medium-bodied, but still very full. The finish is extremely fruity, and then tart. I like the rich, spicy, almost Gewurz taste of it. It reminds me of spice cake soaked in rum, but still is light. I taste ripe peach as well -- a fruit that is juicy and tropical, but also tart.
*Martin and Weyrich Chardonnay and Fleur Vert. Herbed goat's cheese from France. Very nice together. The cheese is creamy and full, but also spicy, so it goes along nicely with the tart, fruity, exotic wine.
Martin and Weyrich Chardonnay with Idiazabal. Smoked sheep cheese from Spain. Not so good. The smoky wood in the cheese makes this pairing bitter. The smoke is also more pronounced. The cheese comes off as way too strong and earthy.
Martin and Weyrich Chardonnay with Tomme de Savoie. This unoaked Chardonnay is way too tart for this earthy, woody cheese. Too bad.
(One day I decided to try a bunch of cheeses with a cheap Chardonnay...)
Nathanson’s Creek and Borden extra sharp cheddar. The
trailer trash combination! This
is the best cheese so far with this wine, maybe because both are cheap!
This tastes pretty good – tangy white wine and lightly creamy, mild
cheese. I think I could fool my
friends with this mix at a party.
Nathanson’s Creek with Tomme de ma
Grand-mère aged goat cheese.
This wine has gone with nothing else, but seemed good with this cheese!
Maybe the goat cheese is so strong, I’m not noticing any strange
interactions. I like it pretty well, though.
Nathanson Creek and Campo de Montalban. This
was ok. I tried this cheese with a
sweet gewürztraminer and it was bad. Then
I had some Chardonnay with it, and it went better, possibly because the
Chardonnay was dryer. The blend
left a little bit of caramel aftertaste.
Nathanson’s Creek and Olive Swiss. It wasn’t
so bad, but I didn’t like the bitter aftertaste that ensued.
Still, these two seemed a little better suited for each other.
Nathanson’s Creek and Saint Albray stinky cheese. This
was not bad at all, though a little bitter and weird.
I felt like the cheese was a little strong for the wine.
It wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Saint Albray is hard to pair.
Nathanson’s Creek and Swiss Diablo. Yuck!
Like drinking lemonade right after brushing your teeth.
The cheese is great. The
wine just turns it all to a mess. The
wine is cheap, but it’s really ok by itself…far far away from this cheese.
Nathanson’s Creek and Fromage d’Affinois. I
don’t like this either. I
wouldn’t put them together, but at a party, people might not notice. The flavor is good at the beginning, then bad for about 2
seconds, and then disappears completely, thank goodness.
Nathanson’s Creek and Montagnolo soft-ripened blue. Not
too hot, but it tasted better than some of the others with this wine.
Again, at the beginning, the flavor is good, and then turns into weird
bitterness. Still, I like the blue mold flavor with the white wine.
I sure wouldn’t put these two together, though.
Nathanson’s Creek and Point Reyes blue. Awful.
It tastes like bile, like I just regurgitated something.
I don’t like this at all. Maybe
if I had eaten the cheese with bread, it would have blended better with the
wine.
Nathanson’s Creek and HEB Swiss. No way will
these cheeses ever be friends, even though they hang out at the same bargain grocery
store. The Swiss gains your trust
with its blandness, and then turns into a monster when paired the white wine.
It was just bitter and gross.
Nathanson’s Creek with Poudre Puff from Colorado. It was metallic and bitter. At first it seemed like it might work, and then something went terribly wrong. I try not to think about it lest I upset myself.
Rutz Cellars Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, 2002 (Tasted in 2004) $11.99 at Grapevine. Distributed by Ambiente. 13.8% alcohol. Keith Rutz makes classically-inspired Chardonnays and Burgundies in California. He makes both in the Burgundian tradition, aged in French oak. His Chardonnay is in the style of Montrachet and Batard-Montrachet -- aged in heavily toasted, small oak barrels from Burgundy. Aged sur-lie in Louis Latour and François Frères French oak barrels for 11 months. Rich, ripe and concentrated flavors, with a great acid backbone and mineral finish. This Chardonnay is yellow and dense-looking with lots of fruit on the nose. Floral, honey, tropical fruit, bright. It tastes slightly tart at first like green apples, but then with a lot of fruit on the mid-palate. Warm, slightly oaky, floral, minerally finish, but overall, not too oaky. This is good. It is very drinkable and different from most Chardonnays I have had from CA. Read more about it at http://www.rutzcellars.com.
Rutz Chardonnay with Australian Cheddar. This Cheddar has a nutty, almost bitter burnt caramel flavor. I like these two together, though there is some bitterness at the end. This is still really good. I think that Grafton 4 Star might be a better match for this wine, but what I like about this pairing is that the cheese is so nutty and full-bodied, and the fruit in the wine stands right up to it. The acidity in the wine is nice with the oily cheese. I like this in the way that I like semi-aged Goudas with Riesling, the whole nutty/fruity/salty/tart combo.
Rutz Chardonnay with P'tit Basque. Sweet, nutty sheep's milk cheese. This is ok. It's passable for a casual party, but the cheese is way too mild for this wine. The acidity really shines through in the wine and overpowers this cheese. It's not a train wreck, but I lose the delicacy of this cheese with this wine. It's better if you drink the wine first, and then eat the cheese since the cheese is milder.
Santa Rita Chilean Chardonnay 2002 (Tasted in 2004) $5.77 at HEB. 13.5% alcohol. It is citrusy, smooth. It was imported by a company in Birmingham, so I bought it. Plus it was cheap. Crisp, grapefruit. It reminds me of Shaw and smith Sauvignon Blanc. This was really good, especially for the price. I loved this wine for this price. I didn't taste any cheeses with it.
Sinatra Chardonnay 2001 (Tasted in 2005) This is made by Cab Frank Winery in CA--http://www.cabfrank.com. 13.5% alcohol. It retails for about $15 or so. There is a picture of Frank Sinatra on the label. Frank Sinatra died in 1998. The next morning, two winemakers in Santa Inez Valley decided to pay tribute to him by making a wine. They produced one single barrel of wine to start out. Part of the proceeds go to the Frank Sinatra Organization to fight child abuse. Made in Santa Barbara, CA. Very light aromas. Not too oaky. It is nice, well-balanced, and tart. When it warms up, a lot more flavor comes out and I start to taste the oak. It's still pretty light-bodied for a CA Chardonnay. Decent acidity and fun fruit, but with a creamier finish.
*Sinatra Chardonnay with Irish Dubliner Cheddar. Very good. They blend perfectly. The cheese is lightly nutty and not overbearing with this wine. There is not too much bitterness. This Cheddar just loves CA Chardonnays.
Sinatra Chardonnay with Parrano, Italian style Gouda. Good at first. I like the nutty cheese with the fruit, but then it gets a little bitter. This Parrano is not working so great with Chardonnays. I think that a regular Gouda would be better.
Three Blind Moose Chardonnay 2004 (Tasted in 2005) $7.99 at World Market. 13.5% alcohol. http://www.3blindmoose.com Light yellow color, very aromatic nose -- tropical fruits like pineapple and then Golden Delicious apples and ripe pears. It doesn't have a lot of acidity. Buttery and toasty. The grapes are harvested at night and then fermented at cool temperatures to keep the fruit flavor. Then the wine is aged on lees. It undergoes 50% secondary malolactic fermentation and is partially aged in French oak. The grapes are from the Central Coast of CA. It is juicy and fruity to the point that it almost tastes sweet.
3 Blind Moose with Primo Taglio Brie. OK at first and then bitter, in spite of the light-tasting rind on this Brie. I like the fruit and butter flavors together. The cheese tones down the fruit in the wine.
3 Blind Moose with Irish Dubliner Cheddar. Wonderful! I love how the tropical flavors in the cheese blend with the tangy, juicy pineapple in the wine. The cheese is also very nutty, which is good with the toasty flavors in the wine. In some ways, though, the cheese is a little strong. It is not really so much stronger than the wine, but it tastes more European than the wine. This wine went great with jalapeno poppers with cream cheese inside.
Toasted Head Chardonnay 13.5% alcohol. Woo! I think this was about $13.99 at Twin Liquors. from R. H. Phillips. It was very buttery and oaky. I have had it twice. It comes from the Estate vineyards of Dunnigan Hills in California . It is named for the toasted-head barrels (barrels where not just the insides are burnt, but also the tops.) The label features artist Robert Shetterly’s drawing of a black, fire breathing bear against a bright orange background. This is why I usually buy the wine -- for the funny bear blowing flames out of its mouth. Should be fun at a party. Toasted Head is aged half in French Oak Barrels and half in American oak barrels. The barrels are stirred once a week to add layers of spice and a rich palate to the wine. Flavors of clove, nutmeg, bright tangerine, pear, vanilla and tropical fruit come through. This full-flavored wine has a crisp acidity and a long finish, with pear and toasty butterscotch oak flavors, and a creamy texture. (I had requested a buttery, creamy Chardonnay). According to Whole Foods, this wine can pair with sea bass, salmon, or roasted chicken. Suggested cheese pairings are creamy Gouda to bring out the toasted elements of the Chardonnay.
Toasted Head with Fromage d'Affinois Double Crème Brie. The cheese cuts back on the oak flavor. Great! Without the cheese, the wine kind of grosses me out like a dessert wine. It is very thick. With the cheese, I taste more nuts. It makes the wine taste tangy.
Toasted Head with Pierre-Robert Triple Crème. Chardonnays, especially buttery Chardonnays, are supposed to be good with creamy, buttery cheeses. This one is too buttery. I don't like it so much. It makes the wine taste like kerosene. It is just weird. Bitter. The cheese gets lost. The butter gets lost, too.
Vin du Bistro Chardonnay 2001 (Tasted in 2003) About $7-8 at Grapevine. Vin de Pays d'Oc in the south, Béziers, towards Spain. 13% alcohol. This is a wine obviously marketed towards Americans with the "Vin du Bistro" name. Or maybe not. They were doing a tasting of this at Grapevine. It was very cheap and good, so I got some of several varieties. It smells like apples, melons, and oak. It is smooth and medium-bodied. I taste a lot of melon and oak, just like I smelled. I get a little bit of flowers, too. Alcohol at the back of my throat.
Vin du Bistro Chardonnay with Bleu d'Auvergne. I liked these together for a split second. It almost was like having a Sauternes or something since the wine feels thick and is very fruity, but then it left a chemical taste. It is ok at the beginning. Then the flavors start to boil together and get a little weird, but I still try to keep in mind that it is blue cheese, so of course it will taste weird. The aftertaste is intolerable. "It's pretty vile," my husband says. The only thing good about this pairing is the crunchy and creamy blue with the nice body of the wine.
Vin du Bistro Chardonnay with Brillat-Savarin. This is good together. Fruit and cream. I like how the wine is a little tingly with the creamy cheese. The wine is pretty buttery tasting, and boy is this cheese, too -- like a big stick of soft butter. I feel like the fruit in the wine overpowers the cheese some, though, and the rind is not good with this wine.
Vin du Bistro Chardonnay with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Gritty cheese. Smooth, thick wine. They kind of cancel each other out, but are not bad together. They don't fight. The cheese makes the flavor of the wine go away and all you can taste is alcohol. Then, the leftover cheese is kind of grainy in your mouth.
Vin du Bistro Chardonnay with Vella Dry Jack. This cheese is bursting with flavor once I chew it, more so than the Parmigiano. It tastes like hazelnuts. This is better than the Parmigiano together because, even though they, too, cancel each other out, afterwards the Dry Jack flavor is still there -- very nutty. It has a long finish that lasts through the wine. I like the buttery and nutty/chocolate flavors together. The fruit overpowers the cheese. It's ok, but I wouldn't do it for the cheese class.
Viu Manent Reserve 2003 (Tasted in 2005) Retails at about $17 or so. 14% alcohol. From Colchagua Valley, Chile. It was fermented both in the barrel and in stainless steel. Some of the wine underwent secondary malolactic fermentaiton and was aged for 12 months in French oak barrels. Notes of nectarine, melon, and pineapple and aromas of honey and toast. Full and rich with a zingy citrus flavor and a biscuity oak and cream finish. It is definitely a tropical smelling type of wine with a lot of oak. Very rich. Medium yellow in color. Medium to full-bodied. It has a little bitterness on the finish, and then more fruit and creaminess, just as the bottle says. It is done in a CA style, probably to market to Americans. It is good for a change. I like less oak and this company has a cheaper, non-reserve bottle that is less oaky and much crisper.
*Viu Manent Reserve with Irish Dubliner Cheddar. Perfect! This is the cheese I was looking for for this wine. The cheese is nutty and mild (for a sharp cheese), and with the wine, it blends perfectly. The full fruit flavors are still present in the wine, but the cheese tones it all down. This Cheddar does the same thing for the wine as the Vintage Irish Cheddar, but it is much better. The Irish Dubliner is more mellow and nuttier and falls into place more easily.
Viu Manent Reserve with Vintage Irish Cheddar. Very very nice. The Cheddar brings out a nice nuttiness in the wine and enhances its caramel flavor. It also tones down some of the oak and lets the tropical fruit shine through. I like this type of Chardonnay with aged Cheddars because the cheese already has taken on a nutty, tropical fruit flavor, almost like pineapple. It goes well with the wine and the tanginess balances out all the wood.
Weibel Chardonnay 2002, Monterey County (Tasted in 2005) This should retail at about $10 or so. 13.8% alcohol. This wine comes from the cool coastal climate of Monterey County. The grapes ripen slowly and evenly during the long growing season. The wine develops complex flavors and maintains its acidity along the way. It smells light and citrusy. It tastes like tropical fruit, spice (like the crazy flavor of a Gewurz), apples, and light oak. This is good. There is definitely not too much oak and the apples and spices are interesting together.
Weibel Chardonnay with Parrano. Italian style Gouda. The Gouda brings out too much bitterness in the wine. I think that this cheese is too bulky tasting for this light wine. It's not so bad, but they don't do much for each other.
White Burgundy, Mâcon-Lugny "Les Charmes" Chardonnay 2002 (Tasted in 2004). $7.99 at Austin Wine Merchant. 13% alcohol. I got this to try with some Crottin. I wanted something crisp and minerally. The city of Mâcon is at the crossroads of Switzerland and Italy. Everyday white wines come from this area. The weather is warmer, sunnier, and more Mediterranean than in other parts of Burgundy. Almost all of the wine from Mâcon is white. Lugny is the specific village. The wines from Lugny are made from cooperatives, so that the wines are reasonably priced. These wines are medium-bodied, fresh, crisp, lively, and almost always unoaked. They are meant to be drunk young -- within three years of the vintage. This is good, and cheap! It doesn't taste oaked. It is a medium-yellow and almost green. Very light and fresh. It feels tingly, like it's got some effervescence. Definitely minerally and herbaceous, dry, and way too drinkable. The finish is very floral and a little bitter, lightly acidic. I can't tell what kind of fruit. Maybe it's a little apple, honeydew melon, and citrus. Like grapefruit on the finish.
White Burgundy, Mâcon-Lugny "Les Charmes" Chardonnay with Capriole Goat Mont St. Francis. I don't like these so much together. The cheese is too earthy for this playful wine. However, I do like the mineralities together. The wine, although medium-bodied and firm in character, gets washed out by the salt in the cheese. The cheese seems like it might like a Pinot Noir.
White Burgundy, Mâcon-Lugny "Les Charmes" Chardonnay with Crottin de Champcol. This Crottin is more bitter and earthy than the Chavignol to me. Maybe it is younger. I like Chablis Sauvignon Blanc with Crottin, so somebody suggested I try this from Burgundy. It is good together. The wine is fruity enough to stand up to the cheese. It's still not as good as my Saint-Bris/Crottin de Chavignol pairing, but it is doing better with Crottin than the Sauvignon Blancs. However, I feel like the cheese overpowers the wine slightly. I take that back. I like these together. The cheese tones down some of the fruit. It does overpower, but it is nice together. The cheese outlasts the wine. It has a salty finish. The cheese makes this wine taste like a Sauvignon Blanc. There is some bitterness in the finish of this pairing.
White Burgundy, Mâcon-Lugny "Les Charmes" Chardonnay with Dill Havarti. This Danish cheese is creamy, milky, buttery, tangy and also fresh and herbaceous with the dill. This is nice together. The acidity of the wine cuts into the cheese, but then I taste more wine than cheese. It's still a good match. It is push and pull with the flavors. It is a little bitter on the finish, but then again, the wine is a little bitter anyhow.
White Burgundy, Mâcon-Lugny "Les Charmes" Chardonnay with Queso al Pimenton goat cheese from Spain. This is like goat cheese Havarti. It's not very good together. They are very bitter. They are both excellent by themselves, but then together, the wine seems too acidic and makes the cheese taste really bitter. I am not quite sure why this went wrong since the Havarti wasn't so bad. Somehow that creamy goat just doesn't work, but the creamy cow is ok. Odd.