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Good Friends, Great Chardonnay!

I love my friends!!!!  Friends get you through rough spots in life, and can also help you celebrate the highs.  Sometimes, friends also share really good wine!

My friend Lisa, (whose husband Michael chose the wine and even chilled it for us, so big kudos to Michael!) brought us a dynamite Chardonnay the other night to a “Girls” gathering.  Yes, this Chard is big and oaky, but it’s balanced and yummy too!

I enjoy a lot of different styles of wine.  Many “wine pros” hate Chardonnay.  Many “wine drinkers” love Chardonnay.  There are two sides to this story.

Chardonnay is a neutral grape.  It is often called the “winemakers grape”, because it can be influenced greatly by the people producing the end product.  It can sometimes be manipulated in a way that is not flattering, and in my opinion this is when Chardonnay gets a bad rap.  Chardonnay can also be LOVELY.  Some of my favorite wines in the world are Chardonnay, especially from the Burgundy region of France.

There are also great examples from other regions, including the New World.  A great example of a fun Chardonnay from the New World (Napa specifically) is the 2012 Staglin Family Salus Chardonnay.  Now would I want to drink this wine every night???  No, but then I wouldn’t want to drink ANY wine every night.  Well, except for Champagne, but that’s another story for another day!

This Staglin Salus Chardonnay is not pretending to be from Burgundy.  It is big and buttery.  It has a good amount of oak on the nose and palate.  It also, however, has some lovely acidity, with pear, green apple, and Meyer lemon to balance the whole thing out.  And the finish is long and lovely.

For me, there are times when I relish a big, buttery Chardonnay like this.  Personally, I think that it’s snobby to say that this is wrong.  If you are a lobster lover, this would be a great pairing.  Personally, I love some good old-fashioned buttered popcorn with this wine!

So whether you’re sitting down to a nice meal of rich seafood, or you’re sitting in front of the TV watching a fun chick flick and devouring some buttery popcorn, grab a bottle of the 2012 Staglin Family Salus Chardonnay.  Let me know what you think!  I can’t imagine you’d be disappointed.

http://www.staglinfamily.com

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