Chard luck woman

First things first: you may have noticed I’ve got a whole new look going on here. You also may have noticed that it is awesome. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can’t. Here is the story. Basically since I started this blog several weeks ago, I’ve been wanting to spruce it up a bit. I mean, let’s not kid ourselves, the basic Blogger template was not exactly on the cutting edge of design. So I enlisted the help of my friend Brian (previously mentioned in this post) since he’s done a fair amount of graphic design work in his day, including creating the logo for his own foodie venture, the Indilicious cart in San Francisco.

And he did an amazing job! He came up with the concept, color scheme, and layout; and it looks great. I definitely owe him dinner and a bottle of something special.

Okay, now that I’ve addressed my blog’s new outfit, I can get to my post.

With over half of May in the books, it is official: we have entered wedding season. We’ve got our first weddings of the year coming up the first weekend of June with several to follow. To celebrate my friend Emily’s upcoming nuptials, we decided on a girls’ trip up to the Napa Valley to do a bit of tasting. Because we went to a few different wineries, I’m going to veer from my usual style and review several wines since we tasted so many on Saturday.

Our first stop was at Nicholson Ranch along the Hwy 12/121 corridor in Sonoma where they poured us a custom flight of three chardonnays, a rosé, a pinot and a syrah. With my notebook and pen in hand, I started in. Our first pour was a 2005 Estate Reserve Chardonnay Cuveé Natalie, which had an interesting mix of stinky, aged cheese and fresh bell peppers on the nose. I was intrigued. The wine itself was nice. I’m not really a fan of chards, but if I were, I imagined that I would have liked this wine. It was creamy and oaky, like any good chard should be, but it had nice acidity and soft buttery undertones. On the whole it was good; solid. Next up was the 2006 Estate Chardonnay. Like the ’05, it had some cheese on the nose, but I detected slight fruit as well. I was encouraged. It was a much lighter wine than the first one with more acid and more tannins. And while the front palate showed acidity and crispness, the mid and back palates showed both butter and oak. Again, it was good. We rounded out the chards with the 2007 Estate. The smell of sweet pineapple immediately wafted out of the glass. I was excited. Much sweeter than the first two, this chard demonstrated tropical fruit and strong acidity throughout. While the wine coated the glass nicely, it was not too heavy, but rather light, airy and almost weightless. Because this wine was not overly oaky or buttery, I enjoyed it much more than the previous two. And as a younger wine, this chard had a freshness that I found satisfying. The ’07 was definitely my favorite of the lineup. We finished up with the rosé, pinot and syrah and went on our way.

The next stop was Grgich Hills, an organic and biodynamic winery on the heavily populated Hwy 29 in Napa. I had high hopes for this winery as it had come highly recommended by some friends at work. I’ll save you the suspense – I was sorely disappointed. We started our flight with a 2007 Napa Valley Chardonnay. It was light in color – much lighter than the chards at Nicholson Ranch – but if ever a chard tasted like buttered popcorn, it was this one. Wow! I felt like I was at the movie theater. I should have known, the nose definitely smelled of butter, with only slight hints of cheese. That being said, I did taste tart fruit on the front palate and the finish was slightly acidic. Nevertheless, this chard was your typical butter bomb and for me, that wasn’t a good thing. They set us up with a 2008 Fumé Blanc next. With tropical fruit and crisp bell pepper on the nose, I was looking forward to a wine that might be more my speed. It was definitely sharp and crisp, but didn’t retain the fruit from the nose. Instead, it was savory up front with a dry, mineral, earthy finish. It felt a little overly structured, rather than having a natural complexity. I liked it better than the chard, but I still wasn’t swooning. We finished up with a zin, a merlot and a cab which garnered an “eh,” “no,” and “not smooth” respectively in my notes.

After lunch, we headed to Frog’s Leap on the Silverado Trail. What a sigh of relief. We were able to escape the craziness of the crowds and enjoy some nice wines and small bites on the porch of this gorgeous winery. They started us with a 2009 Sauvignon Blanc from Rutherford, which was definitely a highlight of the trip. It had nice legs, a tropical fruit nose with hints of grass. The mouth-feel was light and somewhat creamy, but still nice and dry. Tart fruit and a touch of minerality combined with slight acidity to make for an easy-drinking, refreshing wine that would be easy to pair with food. In fact, it went quite nicely with the aged, smoked gouda they offered us as a snack. I could have ended there, but instead we powered through a zin, merlot and cab before moving on.

We rounded out our tour with a stop at Clos du Val and Cline Cellars before heading back to the city, but I’ll share my notes from those wineries another time. All in all, I enjoyed spending time with the girls and learning more about Napa wines. Unfortunately for a gal who favors zins, dry whites and Rhone-style wines, Napa’s cabs, merlots and chardonnays didn’t exactly suit my fancy. That’s not to say I’ll never go back to Napa – with any luck, I may grow to love chard.

Amy’s Award: 2.5 stars (out of 5)
Spendy scale: $50 - $150+ (transportation, tastings and lunch)
Best bet: A Bourdeaux/Burgundy fact-finding mission or a leisurely trip with friends