Heavenly Indeed!

7 Heavenly Chards

I received this bottle just after the holidays when my assistant Joe returned home from Northern California (I know, I know) with 3 of his favorite bottles of wine. I appreciated him sharing something like this with me, completely on his own volition. I told him I would make notes about the wines on the blog since he took the time to share the wines with me - this is the first of those posts.

Several weeks would pass since receiving the wines from Joe before I even would think of opening any of the bottles. Then came a series of weeks where I would tell him, "I am going to open one of the bottles of wine you brought me," and the next day he would come into my office and ask how I liked it. I would have to hang my head in shame and tell him that unfortunately I had not opened one of his wines. All of that would change one night about 3 weeks ago.

It had been a warm day in the valley but not quite unbearable. I had one of the bottles Joe brought me, 7 Heavenly Chards, which had been chilling for a while, and decided that would be the night I opened it. I invited one of my colleagues over to partake in the wine with me, and he brought over crackers and Tillamook Pepperjack cheese.

I own, as a gift from a colleague, a wine opener that uses compressed air (somehow I have given all of my manual openers to people who didn't have any). I mention this because the opening of the 7 Chards proved to be a comedy of errors. I inserted my opener into the cork (not made of cork, but rather a plastic-type material), and pressed on the can of air. I did not expect that for the first time ever, my compressed air opener wouldn't work, but rather, the apparatus was spit back out to me. I was a little perplexed and thought perhaps I had done something wrong. I re-inserted the metal into the cork (the same hole mind you), and the same result occurred. I had to try a third time, and this time I created a new hole for the tube and hoped it would have a different outcome (what is the definition of insanity again?). After more than 15 minutes and almost having to break into my neighbors apartment (with her permission) to get cork screw I was able to successfully open the bottle of wine - the things we do for wine.

While I didn't make formal notes, there are certain things I remember about the nose and color of this Chardonnay. I remember liking the hints of fruit we could smell - the pears and a light citrus aroma wafted out of our glasses. I remember the clearly yellow hue and came out of the bottles and into our glasses. I recall the way our glasses were coated and nice legs showed through. Legs that were evenly spaced at about 1/4 of an inch apart and were present around the entire glass like the poles of a carousel. I remember liking the taste on this wine, that was not too heavy, so much that I think it might be my favorite Chardonnay.

I am grateful to have such a thoughtful assistant. I am grateful to have been diligent with opening this wine when I really wanted to just say "forget it." I am grateful that I was able to enjoy it with such good company. The only thing I regret is not having taken notes that would have allowed me to do this wine real justice. Bravo to the winemakers at Lodi Vineyards for this outstanding selection!

Until next time...