Thirsty Thursdays Series: Mmm. Quaffable.

Not everyone likes wine. I understand this. I do like wine. A bunch. I like the subtly of smells and tastes. While I am not totally sure of all the differences, I can say that I know what type of wine I am in the mood for when the server comes round the table for drink orders or when I am at the grocery store. I have a rudimentary knowledge of the stuff.

Then there is my Husband. He knows there are wines he hasn't liked and he knows there are wines he has enjoyed with a meal or on their own. Unfortunately, his taste buds are not trained yet to be discerning in the way of what each of these wines were different or alike.

We both look forward to the day that we can go to France and enjoy the wine, location, and atmosphere. Despite this mutual dream, we both know very little about what qualities in a glass of wine we enjoy most.

Hence the reason my desire to learn about wines specifically with him.

So, as is my MO, I started planning. I know he likes both red and white, though normally goes for a red over a white. So I started gathering basic information about what make a good, dry, sweet, full bodied, etc Red. realizing the sheer number of wines we might be having to go through and that Husband and I are trying our darnedest to stay in the black, I decided to take a page out of Papa G's book and make it a $10 or less wine club. A bottle for tasting must be $10 or less (not including CRV) and we would invite other friends who like wine to join in as well as bring bottles.

I came up with a tasting chart in hopes to make our future tastings a bit easier as well as being able to reap some knowledge from the mouth adventure. The chart doesn't show up very well on this format, but hopefully it will give you an idea of what sort of information we can gather from it.

WINE NAME			WINE TYPE
VINTAGE			PRODUCER
GRAPES			REGION
PURCHASED			PRICE
Companions			Food
SIGHT					NOTES	PTS
Clarity	Cloudy (less)	Hazy	Clear	Brilliant (more)		/5
Depth of Color	Watery/Thin (less)	Pale	Med/Deep	Dark/Rich (more)		/5
Color	WHITE - Yellow Gold Brown	Green Tinge Pale Yellow	RED - Purple Red/Purple	Red Red-Brown
Vicosity – liquid	Thin	Normal	Heavy	Syrupy		/5
SMELL
Aroma	Herbal Nutty	Fruit Mineral	Spice Earthy	Floral Icky		/5
Bouquet	Dumb/Pale/Closed	Simple/Pleasant	Deep/ Dark	Powerful/Dynamic		/5
Smell Intensity	Light (less)	Mild	Prevalent	Pronounced (more)		/5
TASTE
Acidity (like a lemon)	Flat No Bite	Fresh Crisp	Tart Tangy	Sour Vinegar		/10
Sweetness	Dry	Off-Dry	Semi-Sweet	Very Sweet		/5
TASTE Descriptors Balanced Chewy Complex Concentrated Crispy Deep Delicate Dull Firm Flabby Harsh Hint Intense Intriguing Jammy Piercing Simple Soft Structured	FRUITY Berrylike Blackberry Black Currant Blueberry Raspberry Strawberry Cherry – Black/Red Plum – Prune Gooseberries Citrus Grapefruit Lemon/Lime Stone/Tropical Apple Apricot Mango Melon Peach Pear Pineapple	FLOWERY Violet Rose Orange Blossom Jasmine Lily Geranium Orchid HERBAL Hay Mint Rosemary Thyme SPICY Black Pepper Licorice Cinnamon Clove	NUTTY Almond Coffee Hazelnut Walnut EARTHY Dry leaves Cut grass Moldy Mushroom ICKY Barnyard Dirty Diaper Boiled Egg Gas Alcohol Flinty Vinegar	OTHER Buttery Oaky Mineral Vanilla Cedar Tobacco Chocolate Leather Butterscotch Olive Bitter Hot - alcohol Sour Sharp Sugary Salty Velvety		/10
Complexity	Simple	Interesting	Exciting	Dynamic		/5
Balance	Unbalanced	Good	Very Well	Perfect		/10
Body	Light	Medium	Heavy	Huge		/5
AFTERTHOUGHTS
Finish	None	Short	Medium	Long (10 secs +)		/5
Drinkability	Never Again	Maybe	Yes	Can’t wait		/10
Value	Waste of money	Eh…	Decent	I love a value!		/10
Overall						/100

The points of this chart have nothing to do with the regular style of PTS for wine. it is simple to figure out the most drinkable/yummiest wine. This chart is definitely to get an idea of what type of wine we both enjoy, as well as our friends, which will make future wine including events much easier.

While pulling all this information together, I though back to a Chardonnay I really enjoyed at the Disneyland Resort. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of the Vineyard except that is was in California and it was the oakiest/butteriest wine my mouth has ever felt.

Thus the search for the best Oaky Buttery Chardonnay for the right price quest began. I have pulled together a list of wineries that might be able to replicate that fateful day by searching the words California/Oak/Butter/Chardonnay in the magic maker,Google.
Bernardus

Blue Fin
Bogle  

Butterfield Station 

Cakebread  

Chateau St. Michelle  

Edna Valley Vineyard  
Fetzer 

Geyser Peak 

J Lohr 

Kendall-Jackson 

La Crema 

Meridian 

Rombauer 

Smoking Loon
Sonoma Cutrer 

Stags’ Leap 

Stonestreet

Toad Hollow 

Toasted Head 

Turning Leaf
Wente

While I know it wasn't Turning Leaf or Blue Fin due to cost and availability in restaurants, I figured those both claim to have the desired Oak/Butter flavor for a most modest price.

Thus I have now begun my new series: Thirsty Thursdays.

**Today's title, appropriately, comes from the movie Sideways:
Stephanie (at Kalyra Winery, to Miles, who has just sampled the estate chardonnay she poured for him): "So what do you think?"

Miles: "Mmm. Quaffable. But, uh, far from transcendent."
Jack: "I like it. Tastes great."**