Saturday night we were invited to 3 parties. We're not really social
butterflies, it's just all of our friends choose the same night. All of them
were things I kind of felt like we needed to do, but 3 is too much. Luckily one
of them was a fundraiser, so we just sent a check to that one. Then headed to
the other two. First up was a housewarming party for good friends. There was an
assortment of mostly mass-market wines, I tasted most, forgotten almost all of
them, but know I did have:
2002 Barefoot Chardonnay -totally forgetable wine, why do I remember this when
I forgot the others? C+
2002 Christian Moreau Chablis - clean and lively, chalk and flint, apple and
pear. Why am I sipping this other swill? Might as well just take a full glass
of this and relax. B+

Party #2 was a 25th anniversary for some neighbors, and a lot of similar
industrial wine was served. I only tasted three:
2003 Estancia Chardonnay - I have thought other Estancia bottles reasonable
examples in their price range, but this one out KJed KJ! Sweet, there has to be
real residual sugar here, sitting on top of chippy oak. Pshaw. C+
2002 Coppola Pinot Noir- I'm prepared to hate, I find the Coppola wines
uninspiring at best. But I'm shocked (embarrassed?) to say...this wasn't bad.
Medium-bodied fairly ripe Pinot, bright cherry fruit, ok. B
2001 Feudo Monaci Salice Salentino. Big ripe Southern red, herbs and dark
fruit. A bit of oak, good for a $7 wine. B

Sunday was a busy day of treating the porch and taking Lucy the Basset to a St.
Francis service in the yard of a local church (I'm not much of a church goer,
but the minister is a close friend, and Lucy likes the other dogs - as well as
cats, guinea pigs, ferrets, etc). I came home ready to collapse, but rebounded
on aromas from the kitchen. Betsy made a delicious Marcella Hazan recipe -
Calabrese lamb chops from the latest Saveur. Fantastic sauce with red peppers,
green olives, etc. I had no wines from Calabria, so went to make do with a
Tuscan. 1997 Villa Pillo Vivaldaia, a modest SuperT, was ...corked. Aaggghh.
Too bad, because I actually thought there was an interesting wine underneath.
Unlike a lot of '97 Tuscans from Bordeaux varietals, this seemed to have a
decent acidic spine behind the dark fruit. I kept coming back, but the
mustiness kept assaulting. Too bad. I opened a b'day gift, the 2001 Ramey
Claret. Very ripe blackberry/black plum fruit, some coffee on the nose, fair
amount of oak. Not my preferred style, but a nice wine that could use some
time. B+


Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a
good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where
it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy,
and certainly not of consistency
Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

amnspam (Dale Williams) wrote:

> 2003 Estancia Chardonnay - I have thought other Estancia bottles
> reasonable examples in their price range, but this one out KJed
> KJ! ^^^^
^^

Dale, would you care to exemplify to us old-world yokels what that
means?

Thank you in advance,

M.

Michael Pronay wrote:
> amnspam (Dale Williams) wrote:
>
>
>>2003 Estancia Chardonnay - I have thought other Estancia bottles
>>reasonable examples in their price range, but this one out KJed
>>KJ! ^^^^
>
> ^^
>
> Dale, would you care to exemplify to us old-world yokels what that
> means?

Michael,
KJ = Kendall Jackson, the producer of a cheap, formula-based
Chardonnay (with some RS, no less!) that tastes of oak, butter and not
much else. It almost singlehandedly defined for CA consumers what
Chardonnay was, much to the detriment of CA Chardonnays, alas.

Mark Lipton

Mark Lipton > wrote:

> KJ = Kendall Jackson, the producer of a cheap, formula-based
> Chardonnay (with some RS, no less!) that tastes of oak, butter
> and not much else.

Thank you.

M.

Sorry, Michael. Kendall-Jackson had a huge commercial success with their
Kendall-Jackson "Vintner's Reserve" Chardonnay, a fairly fat oaky white with
some distinct residual sugar. Became one of the most popular wines in America,
and common on wine lists. Perfect for the people who want to order a "dry white
wine". but don't actually want to drink one. I think they also throw a tad of
Gewurztraminer in the mix, to up the tropical/floral scents. I've heard last
couple vintages have lowered the RS, but haven't tried myself.
Dale

Dale Williams
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