This wine smells like a well-worn leather wallet. Good.
2013 Hendry Chardonnay
This didn’t get opened at Mom’s 66th birthday last night.
Unoaked, the taste is in the front of your mouth and on the top of your tongue. It is very balanced, so much that you marvel at it a little. Tropical fruit mixed up in a pile of minerals. Medium acid. Clean. It would be good with vegetable pasta. Happy Birthday Mom.
Dominio de Eguren Protocolo 2012
BBQ chicken and peppers with pickles, rice, and tomato salad. The wine is an inexpensive Spanish red. Dried fruit front, raisin, Cherry, then tannins, and a tart pucker. A little funk, tastes sophisticated. Wonderful with the grill as well as the tomato basil flavor. I would definitely buy it again and before the meal was up, I schemed about how to get hold of a case. Hope I’ll see it again.
The Wine Club, $6
Garofoli Monte Reale Sangiovese Marche IGT 2012
Wine and kebab. We made kebab with yogurt and parley. The tomato salad is with basil and olive oil. The tomato salad and wine were excellent together.
Garofoli Monte Reale Sangiovese Marche IGT 2012. The Wine Club, $11.
Di Majo Norente Sangiovese 2012
The first tomato salad of the season, made of just sliced tomatoes and salt. We made it austere because it was the first, next time we’ll add oil and basil, maybe even cheese. The tomato was grown by a Hmong farmer from Fresno named John who comes to the James Lick Farmer’s Market on Sundays. After this we had grilled eggplant and zucchini over rice with ponzu sauce. And some pickled radish greens. The tomatoes tasted great with the wine but missed fat. The wine was tannic and could have used it. Beautiful color. A good match for the tomatoes. I’d buy another if I came across it, and have it with a burger. The Wine Club, $12.
Remanfredi Bianco Basilicata Vendemmia 2009
The two of us kicked the bottle in no time, before the apps were done. Tending towards orange in color. Dense. We ate it with some cheese, two blues, a midnight moon, honeybee gouda, a mature tangy goat. One of the blue cheeses was very blue and the other was creamy. The very blue one brought out bitterness in the wine, overwhelming it. Tasted best with the creamy goat. Fruit and Mineral. Thick. Very enjoyable. The Wine Club, $18.