We seem to keep coming back to this small winery because we just like the style of these wines. The winery makes several different varietals and a myriad of red blends, and we just like the style of the winemaker.
The ‘08 Lodi Chardonnay is no exception. It was pasta with Alfredo night and our friends for some reason brought red wine, so we brought out a bottle of Chardonnay and had a wonderful evening. This wine is big on apples and pears both in the nose and on the palate. Somewhere in the background you get a lemon-citrus thing lurking like Santa on the roof waiting for the children to go to sleep. It’s there, you know it’s going to be pleasant, but you just can’t quite touch it. Some vanilla at the mid-palate tips us off to a bit of oak aging. Our guests thought they found creaminess indicative of malolactic fermentation, but we disagreed on that point with them. The jury was split, and you will have to judge when you drink the wine for yourself. All in all, it is a wonderful example of small California winery Chardonnay that is made to be consumed today, and at least two more times this week. Just do it.
With it’s under $12 price point, we give it a very solid 3 Stars — Recommended. Under $10 would boost its rating, but we still think this is a wine that you should have in your cooler all the times, and you should not hesitate to drink it anytime the food would go well with a Chardonnay.
This is the oaked cousin to the Tapestry un-oaked Chardonnay. We opened this bottle when another Chardonnay didn’t work out well with our grilled rainbow trout. This wine is ripe, round and lush in the nose and the mouth, with green apples in addition to the Bartlett pear and a yeast flavored mid-palate and a slightly oaky finish. The slightly oaky, slightly smokey finish was the perfect match to our grilled trout served over rice pilaf, and made for a very enjoyable evening. We give it 4 STARS — RECOMMENDED
We were having grilled trout and were looking for something white to go with it. This wine was not the right choice. The nose on this wine is weak. It was hard to pick out any fruit and that carried through to the palate and the finish. It’s still better than Chardonnay that comes out of a box, but if it were a $7 wine, it would score much better. At the $9 price point where it sits, there are many other, better wines out there. 2-Stars — Better Wines Out There
We liked the “Baker’s Gulley” Shiraz from Tapestry that we had last week so much, that we thought we’d go back to this winery for a white wine. We chose the unoaked Chardonnay. This wine is the liquid gold version of the biggest, ripest Bartlett pear that we’ve ever put into our mouth. It’s clean yet juicy, with a creaminess on the back of the palate that removes any of the unpleasantness associated with so many un-oaked Chardonnays at the finish. This wine is well balanced and round in the mouth and works just great for watching the sunset with some crackers & white cheese, or with a Waldorf salad and similar, but it probably won’t work excellently with a heavy, garlicky cream sauce. Only 1700 cases made. 4 STARS — RECOMMENDED
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