Winey Tasting Notes: Mommy Juice White (with MY Mommy)
For the purposes of clarity, in the following review, I will refer to myself as Mommy and my mother as Mimi. She was christened with that name about 17 years ago by my now 19 year old West Point Cadet. (For the record, she thought “Gran” was the way to go – really cool and young – but when your beloved first grandchild yips out “Mimi” because he was obviously confused between you and his Mommy, well, Mimi you stay – through 5 grandchildren.)
I am like Mimi in the fact that we both love our wine. And that’s where the winey mother-daughter resemblance stops. Seriously, I have enhanced and encouraged (good use of pretentious verbs, huh?) my palate as the years have gone on. Zinfandel, Cabernet, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc….I try them all. But Mimi stopped exploring wine after the color pink first poured into her glass. (I like to think that her love for pink is inspired by the fact that the only girl she ever gave birth to is so wonderful and amazing..so let’s just go with that, shall we?) Seriously, it’s almost a Pavlovian conditioning thing: say the word “wine” and she responds “White Zinfandel with ice” (yes, ice..but one thing at a time here).
There’s nothing wrong with White Zinfandel on its own. But when it is the ONLY wine you drink, time after time, occasion after occasion, year after year, it gets on your daughter’s nerves. Hence my new goal in life: to get Mimi to try non-White Zin. Mimi frequently visits us and if the weather is nice, we wind up out on the patio. So one lovely summer day, I decided it was the perfect time to bring out my secret wine weapon and make her sip something non pink: Mommy Juice White Wine. Without giving her time to think, I unscrewed (that life- and time-saving screw top for when you need wine and need it NOW) the cap, filled the glasses and handed her one without saying a word. She must have been tired from the drive, because she didn’t say a word either.
Mommy Juice is 100% Chardonnay from Monterey County, California. It’s 13.5% alcohol and was brought into this world by Cheryl Durzy, a California mom who has worked in the wine industry in her family’s business for over a decade. The bouquet that greets you on opening Mommy Juice White is citrusy and lemony and a bit tropical-y (had to keep the -y thing going there). The taste is pure sunlight and grass with the citrus still chiming in. I would say that this is a light wine – but not a lightweight wine. While it’s not what you’d call oaky dry, it’s NOT sweet (IE: pink). It is crisp and refreshing with a tangy finish.
And MIMI LIKED IT! True, it wasn’t a Sally-Field-at-the-Oscars kind of moment, but she liked it…she really liked it!! (Pause as I sit back and get a bit cocky about my winey little victory.)
As far as I’m concerned, Cheryl “Mommy Juice White” Durzy is a genius. Not only did she get Mimi to like a Chardonnay, she also named her wine something that you can honestly tell your children you are drinking. “Mommy, what’s in the glass?” “That’s my mommy juice, honey.” (Hmm…would work with husbands, too, wouldn’t it?)
Did I mention that this is under $10 a bottle? Buy. Drink. Repeat. And I’ll send Mimi over for some too!
Cheers!
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