Louis Latour Puligny-Montrachet 2003

I don't like Chardonnay. 

If you are still reading, let me explain why. 

I don't like Chardonnay in the same sense I don't like salmon. 

Now, if I haven't lost you yet, maybe I can really tell you something about me. Ok, let me start with salmon: salmon is an overrated and overpriced fish. C'mon, there are plenty of tastier fishes and, yet, 90% of the times salmon is almost the only fish choice at a restaurant. And why is that? Because salmon is familiar, easy, trendy and "safe". Now, I like variety, I like bold flavors and I have a natural, ancestral aversion to trendiness (to mainstream, actually). Salmon is the paradigm of what I don't like in food.

Chardonnay is in the wine world what salmon is in the fish world: an overrated and mostly overpriced wine. Chardonnay is grown everywhere, everybody drinks it, and everybody likes it. Unfortunately, the trend for the past 15 years was to create the perfect template, a standardized chardonnay regardless of the growing region. The result is that 99% of the Chards out there taste the same. Well, to be precise there are 2 templates: the tasteless, to-be-drunk-chilled, easygoing, mindless whites and the over-powerful, over-oaked, over-alcoholic deep yellows. Beware of both, avoid them at all cost: they will corrupt your taste and your mind. UN should proclaim a moratorium on mainstream Chards.

So, after all this nonsensical rambling, I must confess that finding a great Chardonnay is like finding a rare gem. And to find such a rarity I almost always have to go back to my beloved Bourgogne, homeland of the easiest and the hardest grapes of all (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir), plus the overlooked Gamay which is almost invariably better than one would think (if you are smart enough to decline the Nouveaux). To tell the truth, Champagne is another great place to find good Chardonnays. Anyway, this Puligny-Montrachet is an example of what emotions a great Chardonnay can evoke. 

BTW, when I'm in the mood to have a great salmon, I always go to one of my favorite restaurants, La Corte di Pogliano Milanese, where Leonardo Buoso is capable of ennobling even a stupid fish. Alas, it's now 6,000 miles away!

Tasting notes: Deep yellow gold color with green reflections. The nose is a wonderful and complex bouquet of flowery (elder, lilac), fruity (tangerine, passionfruit, peach, hazelnut) and mineral (steel, graphite) flavors. The palate is smooth and ample, with a great correspondence with the nose. The long and complex finish is superb, leaving the mouth fresh and watering for more. A great wine, showing the full potential of Chardonnay, very drinkable now and probably improving for at least a decade.

Score: 90/100

Price: $34.99

Salmon Run Riesling 2007

After having lived in Rochester for one year and a half, I've tasted quite a few Finger Lakes Rieslings. While there are a lot of different interpretations of this wonderful grapes, I've found a few common characteristics: Finger Lakes wineries favor sweeter Rieslings (semi-dry and sweet Rieslings are more common and even dry ones have distinctive sweet flavors), floral and mineral scents are preferred to hydrocarbons, Rieslings are made to be drunk young.

Dr. Konstantin Frank, the founder of the winery named after him, is recognized as having led the revolution in wine quality in New York State and the East Coast and for bringing the vitis vinifera in the cold New York State climate. His winery is today a very good representative of the Finger Lakes region potentiality in high quality wine making.

Tasting notes: Bright pale yellow color. The nose is floral (rose) and mineral (steel, chalk). The palate is dominated by a crisp acidity, slightly damped by a light sweetness (the residual sugar is not declared, though). Pleasant medium finish, leaving plenty of rose water flavors in the mouth. This is a very typical and unpretentious dry Finger Lakes Riesling (which are never really dry), favoring floral and mineral flavors and lacking the mesmerizing petroleum flavors found in Alsatian and Italian Rieslings.

Score: 84/100

Price: $11.99

Ravenswood Petite Sirah California 2006

Napa Valley was the first US wine region I became acquainted with and the first I had the chance to visit, in 1995. In Italy, "US wines" usually meant California Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons. Gallo, Mondavi and Kendall Jackson were the only brands easily available. Eventually, we learned about other wineries, grapes and regions (mostly Oregon) and prices outrageously increased. So, it's nice to find a Californian wine that is both cheap and actually enjoyable: this Petite Sirah might not be very typical but is a great sip!

Tasting notes: The color is ruby with purple reflections. The nose is fruity (plum and blueberry), spicy (ginger) with a hint of vanilla and green pepper. The palate is smooth and velvety, alcoholic with a good structure; the oak, although in good evidence, is nicely blended with the fruit. A nice wine overall, even if lacking true varietal syrah flavors.

Score: 84/100

Price: $8.99

Brickstone Cellars 2005 Finger Lakes Chardonnay

Finger Lakes is a relatively young wine region, comparable, in a sense, to one of my favorite ones: Alsace. No wonder that Riesling and Gewurztraminer are prominently cultivated. As in most US wine regions, wine makers are experimenting with lots of different grapes and styles, which makes hard to categorize the area in a well defined way. At the moment, wines show very good acidity, fruity flavors and sweet or semi-sweet flavors. This Chardonnay from Widmer Wine Cellars, located on Canandaigua Lake, is a dry, barrel fermented wine which lacks some balance but shows the potential of the region. I'm very happy to be around here for the next few years.

Tasting notes: The color is yellow-gold with green reflections. The first impression at the nose is the oak flavor (which accounts for the "Barrel fermented" reading in the label) which is not completely blended with the other flavors in the bouquet: citrus (lime and grapefruit) and flowers (orange flowers). The palate is buttery, maybe too much, with a good acidity, though. The finish is clean and pleasant. Not a bad wine, overall, with just too much oak and greasy flavors.

Score: 80/100

Price: 10.99

Gouguenheim Malbec 2007

I'm not a huge fan of Malbecs in general, but a few of them may be enjoyable, if properly harvested when ripe and aged a little bit (a couple of years, no more). This Argentine Malbec from Mendoza Province is no exception: it doesn't express its full potential, probably because of an early harvest. Anyway, it's a correct, drinkable wine and the price is correct for its value.

Tasting Notes: Purple red with ruby reflections. The nose is spicy (white pepper and anise), fruity (plum and blueberries) with some bitter and "green" flavors. The palate is interesting even if a little disharmonious with a medium finish, lacking some cleanness and finesse.

Score: 79/100

Price: $7.99

Cloudline Oregon Pinot Noir 2006

While Bourgogne remains my favorite choice for Pinot Noir (and also a wonderful tourist spot), Oregon comes as a close second. It is also a very nice place to visit: my wife and I spent a memorable week there in 2006, visiting the wine country. 

Since my moving to the States, the geographic closeness and the unfavorable Dollar-Euro exchange rate pushed me to taste more U.S. wines than I was used to (not necessarily a bad thing, though). So, I tried lots of different Pinot Noirs available at Marketview Liquor, one of my favorite liquor store. Most of my pets are in the $30-$50 range and I was looking for more affordable choices: 2006 Cloudline, which I never tasted before, was offered with a 10% discount. I paired it with my specialty hamburger (ground chuck roast mixed with ham, onion and american cheese) and I enjoyed it. Though, there are better alternatives for the same price.

Tasting notes: The 2006 Cloudline is deep ruby red with purple reflections, a sign of its very young age and, probably, too much extraction. The nose confirms the extreme youth, especially in the bitter, somewhat smoked smell, which characterize most Pinot Noirs under 4 years of aging; alcohol is also prominent. On the good side, there are very evident varietal flavors (cherry and raspberry), some spices (coriander and nutmeg) and just a hint of oak. The palate is smooth, alcoholic, with good correspondence to the nose. A little bit unidimensional and not very long in the end. Probably better in 2 years from now, when the youthful roughnesses might have faded.

Score: 79/100 

Price: $17.99