Mount Eden 2007 Wolff Chardonnay

Mount Eden is very well known as one of the original modern-day wine producers of the Santa Cruz mountains, and their Chardonnay represents both a luscious example of what California Chardonnay is known for, plus an outstanding value on top of that.  Hailed on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines list in several vintages, the Wolff Chardonnay from grapes sourced in the Edna Valley, it demonstrates exactly what people mean when they ask for a “buttery” wine.

For the 2007 vintage, Wine Spectator awarded another great score, with 91 points and a “Smart Buy” designation:

Ripe and floral, with fleshy peach, nectarine, melon and spice.  Full-bodied, focused and elegant, with a long, persistent finish that emphasizes the ripe fruitiness.  Drink now through 2012.

In recent years, the overabundance of poorly made and over-hyped buttery styles of Chardonnay created a backlash.  Now, the propensity of many wineries is toward producing un-oaked, crisp and clean versions.  As wineries scramble to prove themselves as non-conformist as every other winery by stopping their buttery/oaky production of Chardonnay, it’s the remaining neo-traditionalists that show just why this style became popular in the first place.   My recommendation is to remove the attitude.  There are plenty of unoaked wines throughout the world to choose from.  Sometimes the table begs for something rich, full, smooth and creamy.

The processes

The spectrum of styles comes from two winemaking methods working in tandem.  First, oak aging of the Chardonnay adds flavors including not just oak/cedar notes, but also butter and vanilla.  The newer the oak, the stronger the impressions.  This oak aging is a hallmark of France’s Burgundy region.  Unoaked versions are more in line with France’s Chablis style.  Secondly, the winemaking process known as Malolactic Fermentation is the use of a second strain of bacteria put to work transforming crisper Malic acids into the softer, creamier Lactic acids (like the acids in cream).

This Wolff Chardonnay is both 100% oak aged and has gone through 100% malolactic fermentation.  But rather than overdone, the rich and creamy appeal is in the full-bodied fruit in abundance, layed across a backbone of balanced oak flavors.  Thankfully, there are still enough great producers of this California style that we can craft savory and creamy chicken dishes, cedar-plank salmon or a sprawling holiday meal to enjoy alongside a great glass of Chardonnay.  This is one of the best anywhere near this price.

2007 was a classic year from this mature, thirty-year-old vineyard. The grapes were harvested in October because of the cool, maritime climate in Edna Valley, and the long growing season gave the wine firm structure and beautiful acidity with buoyant aromas of citrus zest, gardenia flower and toasty nuance. Aged for nine months in French and American oak, this chardonnay is full and rich on the palate reflecting its old-vine, barrel fermented, sur-lie approach. The finish is long and complete.

This wine is regularly sold for $19.99, but is available to wine club members for only $17.99!

 

• Visit the Mount Eden Winery website
• Read more about the Edna Valley wine appellation
• Discover California Wines is one of the best statewide wine information sites
• See complete information about Chardonnay at Wikipedia
• Watch a video about harvesting Chardonnay grapes at YouTube

• Cedar Plank Salmon from Salut! Wine Outlet
• Easy Smothered Bacon Chicken from Allrecipes
• Turkey with Cranberry & Bacon from Thanksgiving Recipes.biz

Have you tasted this wine? When you’ve had a chance to enjoy this wine, please return to this blog and leave your comments! Others will appreciate your input, unique viewpoint, and recommendations.

 

Spicy Crab Dip – A Salut! Wine Co. favorite recipe

In 2008 at Salut! Wine Co. we rounded up a number of recipes for unique and flavorful dips, combining them in different ways and serving them up at our Friday night wine tasting events to test each new iteration on the 50 or 60 guests in attendance. With each passing week, we got closer and closer to the right combination of ingredients and methods until this Spicy Crab Dip recipe was determined to be the best we could produce of the spicy dip we were searching for.  At the same time, we also found a great Bleu Cheese Bacon Dip Recipe.

We sold the fresh recipe in our store, so we didn’t let the secret recipe out of our hands…until now.  Our Salut! Wine Co.  Spicy Crab Dip recipe is now posted on our website at Salutwine.com!  You’ll love the spicy seafood flavor, the creamy texture, and the light crunch of water chestnuts. For many of our guests, it created a new appreciation for Crab!

Now that you have access to this recipe, you can serve it up in a number of ways.  We used an ice-cream scoop to serve it as part of our “Double Dip” plate aside fresh baguette slices and crackers. But try these ideas as well…

• Spread it across a crostini with a sprig of dill or chives as garnish
• Stuff a cod filet before poaching
• Try it on baked red potatoes
• It’s also great on Pita triangles
• Or on slices of cucumber
• It’s delicious stirred into tomato soup
• Use it as a sandwich spread on a fish sandwich
• Bake it into a stuffed pepper with cooked white rice and more crab as filler
• Warm it up and toss it with pasta and colorful pepper strips for a quick salad
• Serve it over steamed broccoli

Read an MSNBC article about how spicy foods can keep you slim and happy.  Find more Crab and other seafood recipes at The Crab Place.  You can learn a lot more facts about Water Chestnuts on The Chinese Soup Lady’s blog or maybe just see what the Crab Nebula looks like up close.

Or how about just a cute commercial about the Honda Element and a crab…

 

A second chance at tasting Riedel crystal – Don’t miss it!

When our Vancouver store closed in March, it also canceled one of the few Riedel events scheduled in the Northwest this year.  Now comes a second chance! 

Riedel’s Vinum XL line will now be featured at an event featuring Riedel icon Georg Riedel at the Willamette Valley Vineyards on June 11th, 7pm

More information about this event is now posted on my Portland Wine Examiner blog at http://bit.ly/bFLKd, along with links to more Riedel information, history and related fun items.

Don’t miss it!  I’ll be there, too.

Check out our online offering with the largest local selection of Riedel stemware, with free local delivery, at www.salutwineoutlet.com

 

A primer on cooperage & barrel making

As late as the early 1900’s, barrels were the primary container for the transport of oils, flour, pickles, salt, beer, spirits and wine. But today wood barrels are used almost exclusively in the production of wine; a return to their origins when the Celts invented the art of barrel making, or “Cooperage” during the Iron Age (750bc to 43 AD) to replace the ancient amphorae used by the Greeks and Italians.

Modern technology has made production of wine barrels faster and more consistent, but cooperage remains a skillful craft…the wood staves (the vertical slats bound by metal bands) in each barrel must fit water-tight without the use of glues, liners or metal which would react with the wine inside. In addition, the woods used are hand-selected from specifically desired 80-100 year old oak trees and forests throughout the world, since barrels impart color, aroma and flavors (oak, vanillin, clove, cinnamon, chocolate, nutmeg, etc.). The selection of wood is as important to the cooper as selection of grapes is to the winemaker. For instance, the French forests in Burgundy grow slower in a cooler climate, creating a finer grained hardwood, which specifically suits the aging of certain wines. American species oak trees impart a tell-tale sweeter oak flavor with coconut and vanilla overtones and less tannin than European woods, due in part because of 2-4x the amount of “Lactones” present in the woods grown here.

Barrels also facilitate a breathing process between the outside environment (air) and the wine and spirits, causing alcohol and water to evaporate through the staves (up to 4% of the volume over a year’s timeframe), concentrating the wine and spirits. It’s the breathing process that helps integrate the wine and that is partially responsible for a wine’s harmony.

Parts of a barrel

Because the craft of cooperage is so important to the final wines produced inside, many larger wineries insist on producing their own barrels at the winery…Maison Latour crafts over 2000 barrels annually with traditional methods used there since the middle ages.

To produce a barrel, first the wood is selected and cut to shape. The staves are then dried outside for several years to allow impurities and undesirable odors in the woods to air out and allow the harsher tannins present in the oak to dissipate.

Staves of proper size are then steamed (to allow bending) while being assembled and wrapped with steel bands, then “toasted” with a flame inside to further soften any tannins present and impart toast, coffee or caramelized qualities. The barrel is then finished with ends, called “heads” and with river reed parts where needed for water-tight seals.

As production methods improve in the U.S. (as American coopers adopt French methods and reject old whiskey-barrel methods), American barrels continue to rise in worldwide acceptance. But French barrels still command far higher prices ($700 for French, $300 for American).

For more information:

• Watch a video of the Louis Latour barrel making tradition.
• See a scrapbook of historical barrel making photos from the past century.
• Read about the daredevils who rode over Niagra Falls in barrels
• Shop an array of choices in wine barrel furniture

 

Don’t miss the great links in Salut! articles

Throughout our articles here at Salut!, you’ll find many links where you can find additional information about topics and words. These links aren’t automatically generated…like our product selections, each link is chosen carefully to represent some of the best quality websites and information sites we’ve discovered. Don’t miss checking them out if a topic or word interests you.

With each link, we first peruse dozens of similar sites with the same or similar information, then select the site based on a few good criteria:

• Lack of annoying pop-ups or over-dominating ads
• Plenty of additional information along with quality links
• If possible, the site will be a compendium for information about the complete topic…a resource for your future information needs
• Low reason for bias toward recommending specific products they represent or sell
• Conversational writing tone similar to ours
• Unique and fun approach to the topic
• Photos and videos that are well made and “worth a thousand words” each

For example, a link to italian wines won’t take you to a shopping site, it takes you toward the vast amount of knowledge available at ItalianMade.com, where the best up-to-date and complete information is found for every Italian region including both the foods and wines of the country.

We hope you enjoy the quality of our links.  Be sure to let us know if you find other important links for us to place in our articles, and leave us comments!