A "Fat" Time to Come Back!

Well, it's been a long time since I've been able to post to this blog. The end of a very busy semester and a holiday in a home that doesn't really drink wine severely hampered my efforts to continue expanding my palate. That doesn't mean that me or my housemate don't have more wine to share though! While I don't think that I'll be able to post here everyday, especially with classes beginning again, I beleive that I'll be able to leave something for you all to peruse at least 3-4 times a week.

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I figured I'd start with one wine I was able to try out recently, one that was picked up on a whim to fill the need for a cheap bottle of Chardonnay at the time. It produced some very interesting results:

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Price (Paid in Ithaca NY): $10

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Maker: Thierry and Guy Fat Bastard

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Vintage: 2006

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Country/Appelation: France/ Languedoc-Roussillon.

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Varietal/Blend: 100% Chardonnay

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Special Designations: None

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Nose: Fairly light and creamy, this smells like it has absorbed quite a bit of oak. It's not totally pleasing though, almost like someone poured milk on a piece of toasted french bread and stuck it in a very green tree. Each component smells alright, but together its not quite right.

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Taste: I don't know if green plums exist, but that would seem to describe the not quite ripe flavor that stands out at first. The toasted buttery oaky notes balance the strange but not unpleasent fruitiness of the afore mentioned plums, plus bananas and a touch of acidity keep this wine from being too boring. The downsides would be the abrupt finish and a strange consistency, almost like someone put some pureed banana in to thicken it up a touch. The longer it sits, the more the banana and toasty cream dominate this wine, which is definitely oaked to the hilt. This wine could be quite good with the flavors if it was more balenced between the grapes and the oak. As it stands now, the oak really runs roughshod over the weak green fruit.

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QPR: Good/Poor, if you like oak. Poor, if you don't.

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Good Pairings: This wine would accompany banana flavored dishes well, especially mexican style ones. Perhaps the oakiness would also lend itself to some white cheeses.

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Final Thoughts: I struggled whether to give this wine an all out PASS or not. It is really over oaked and my housemate was so taken aback by the consistency and oak that he (never having had a corked wine before) thought it was corked and no good. Generally, I would say you could do much better, even for $10 Chardonnay, but there are those who like really oaky Chardonnays for their $10 price point as it tends to cover flaws and keep the acidity at bay. So, I guess my advice on this wine would be the same I give to my wine drinking friends, don't take my word on whether its good or not, take my word on what it tastes like and if it intrests you, go for it!