Winey Tasting Notes: Round Hill Chardonnay From a Friend
You know you’ve reached a certain milestone as a Winey Mom when Winey Friends start giving you their leftover wine. I have reached that milestone. And I’m proud of it.
A few weeks ago, one of my Winey Besties (and by Bestie I mean someone who has sat by my side through countless high school basketball games on butt numbing bleachers, worked till the wee hours of the morning with me at After Prom and logged countless walking and talking miles with me on the path around our town’s lake…we actually weren’t walking around the lake as much as we were being walked around the lake by her dog, but that’s just a detail) announced that she had a bunch of leftover wine from a work party, and had brought some of it home. She likes her wine, but like me, is the only one who really drinks it at home. So of course, she thought of me to hand the leftovers to. And it’s funny, because I had actually seen this wine recently and made a note that it was one I’d like to try. I was very glad it was a Chardonnay, too, because it seems like all I’d been sipping lately was big juicy reds. And I mean no offense to the reds, it’s just that after tasting so many of them, I was in the mood for a white wine. And then my girlfriend shows up on my front porch with one. Wine karma at its best.
The wine in question is Round Hill Chardonnay (2012, 13%, California). One of the main reasons it had caught my eye was that it was on sale – and we all know how I love a Winey sale. And I hadn’t had a Chardonnay in a while. So I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in possession of a bottle, courtesy of said Winey Friend.
Little did I know that I was about to sip a gorgeous fall day in a bottle. Because that’s exactly what the bouquet and tastes of this Chardonnay brought to mind. The nose starts with aromas of ripe, mellow pears, Macintosh apples and vanilla – the scents of autumn! The taste followed up on this nose perfectly with prickly pear, toasty vanilla and sour red apple. It finished with light vanilla and oak. The mouth feel was round and smooth.
The perfect wine for Autumn, evoking thoughts of gold and orange tinged leaves, cold, crisp air, bonfires, fall fruits and of course, those awesome chunky fall sweaters. (I am a sucker for a big old comfy sweater.)
Buy this wine if you like your Chardonnay with a touch of oak and full of fruit pie flavor – not sweet, but toasty and warm and smooth. I can see it pairing so nicely with a roast chicken, or a cheese plate appetizer (perhaps before you serve the turkey in a few weeks). An added plus is that it retails for around $8 a bottle – and as I said, it was on special for less when I sipped it.
Cheers to Winey Friends! Cheers to us all!
