I don’t know about you, but I get tired of whites that “taste like Chardonnay.” The fact is that they don’t taste like Chardonnay; they taste, in many cases, like new barrel fermentation and maturation, as well as malolactic fermentation. But there is nothing underneath. It’s just that.
So boring.
I thought about this today sitting in the British Airways lounge at Terminal 5 in Heathrow on the way to Montreal. BA had bottles of the Portuguese white Esporão on tap, and I wanted to taste it because I hadn’t had it for a long time. I always thought the wine tasted of very little other than all of the above, even thought it was made from funky local grape types. The new wood technique dominated everything.
Well, the 2008 Reserva hasn’t changed. It was a good quality white, but it said nothing of where it was from and everything from how it was made. I didn’t finish the glass.
Had a friend up for dinner last night, with the focus being on Santa Cruz Mountain Chardonnay - Ridge, Neely and Varner. No banality there at all. There's so much underneath.
C'mon Spring! We're waiting here!
Enjoy your stay.
Marc