2016 Rombauer Chardonnay

Alright, I’m already breaking one of my rules. The wine I have in front of me is a 2016 Rombauer Chardonnay. This wine retails at around $35, but I got it on sale for $28! (Woot woot! Fresh Perks card!) Why, in my first wine review, am I already breaking the rules? Because doing these posts is kind of a daunting task and I needed something familiar to start out with.

If I had to describe Rombauer Chardonnay I would say that is a glass of melted butter infused with mango and citrus. Also known as Danville Crack, this wine is butter on top of vanilla on top of mango and pineapple. This is a high alcohol wine at 14.5%, but it doesn’t feel that way. This wine is kinda dangerous. It’s sweet, but not syrupy. It’s mouthwatering, but not sour. And it’s creamy, delicious, and I’m going to drink this entire bottle if I’m not careful…

Oops… too late the bottles empty.

Are y’all ready to learn something? Because I’m in a teaching mood! Chardonnay is known for its buttery flavor. Now any other grape varietal and I would say that is a byproduct of the grape varietal, but here’s the fun bit about wine, Chardonnay is also the main grape in both Chablis and some Champagne! I know right? Crazy that those bone dry, mineral-y wines are made with the same grapes as this bomb of buttery tropical fruit! That’s because of two winemaking techniques that are used when making this wine: malolactic fermentation and lees stirring. I won’t go into too much detail (because this bit of it gets really science-y) but all this process does is decreases acidity and increases buttery mouthfeel.

I was trying to figure out a food pairing for his wine and I thought potato gnocchi with pulled chicken in a creamy thyme sauce with baby bella mushrooms… I then remembered that these were supposed to be quick and easy food pairings. With that in mind, I would suggest buttered and salted popcorn. It’s not exactly a groundbreaking food pairing, but chardonnay and popcorn go together like chocolate and peanut butter.