Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler wine thread

The Dutton is one of my favorite Pinots.

The Harford Family Winery looks like they make some pretty good juice. Did you find them to be over extracted / over oaked, typical to many Napa wines, or just about right?? I've become sensitive to that lately. I might just have to sign up for their club as I do enjoy good pinot and zin. They're not exactly 'cheap' though are they? Looks like they start at $40 and go on up from there.

They definitely are on the more expensive side of things, but judging from my tasting the price is justified - the quality was a clear step up from any of the other wineries I visited that day.

I found the wines to be just right. I tend to like a little oakiness, but didn't think these wines were over-oaked at all. Great body, great structure and great balance from start to finish.

Hey Adam,

I've been emailing back and forth with Hartford. I'm going to have them send me a mixed case. Based on my preferences, Ariel recomended I try the following.

2006 Russian River Valley Zinfandel $30.00 per bottle or

2006 Hartford Vineyard, Russian River Valley Zinfandel $50.00 per bottle ( single vineyard designate -low production)

2006 Fog Dance, Green Valley, Russian River Valley Pinot Noir $45.00 per bottle

2006 Land's Edge Pinot Noir $45.00 per bottle

2005 Jennifer's Pinot Noir $65.00 per bottle ( single vineyard designate- low production)

Having tasted their wines, which ones do you think I should get?? I need to fill a full 12 bottle case.

Mike,

I bought a 2005 Land's Edge Pinot in my last big order from wine.com and found it to be excellent.

Although not from Hartford, this weekend some friends brought over a couple bottles Of Sea Smoke Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara (one for drinking and one as a late B-day present for me) Another great Pinot, and I'm pretty finicky about Pinot Noirs, I either love them or can't stand them.

Looks like a great selection, Mike. I tasted the Fog Dance when I was there and really liked it - I preferred the Land's Edge a little, but would've been happy with either. I did not taste the Jennifer's, so I can't say if it's worth the extra $20. I think I also tasted both Zins on your list and out of those two preferred the Hartford Vineyard, it had a little more structure and better balance. In fact it was pretty much a tossup between that and the Highwire I ended up bringing home.

I'd probably just split the case equally between the middle 3. Maybe throw in a bottle of the Jennifer's to see if it is worth it.

Thanks Adam.

I'm putting together a wine.com order now Michael. I'll see if they have those.

Wow.
I've really fallen behind on my reading.

So many great recommendations for wines. So many i cannot get here. I've looked for a few names, but nothing has come available at our wine store up the road which is one of the larger ones in town.
I may have to browse elsewhere just to see what possible availability is like.

In the meantime, i found a hard to get wine outside of southern Ontario. A winery named Lailey.
They have a CANADIAN oaked chardonnay (and some reds). They also make a standard American oaked chardonnay and i plan on having a taste test comparison, same vineyard, same year of grapes, the only difference is the oak used for barrels (same species, different growing region).

http://www.canadianoak.com/index.html
Make sure you check you the link on the science!

http://www.laileyvineyard.com/laileycellar.htm

Update to old updates.
Found a new house wine (the kind we buy as a case). Long ago we retired the Lindemans Bin65 as the "mother in law is in town" brand of wine. That's not to say our relatives don't appreciate a good bottle of wine, but more often than not those who visit our home are not as keen on the palate and tend to think "all wines taste the same".
As such, i figure they wouldn't care if we served a $10 vs. a $50 bottle of chardonnay but my pocketbook is better off keeping the grander priced grapes for ourselves.

Now, with that in mind, we still would like to have a wine in the cellar that is an enjoyable one. The Bin65 is one of the world's most sold chardonnays for a reason. It is simple. It is cheap. And most importantly, it doesn't make you gag.

Sometime ago we just got tired of having it around and wanted to find a second chardonnay to stock in the cellar as a house wine (we have 6 house wines at the moment, cab sav, shiraz, zin, riesling, 2 chards and are thinking of adding 2 more). Earlier this year while attending the wine festival we tried several. One that i recall was quite nice given the time in the evening where my taste buds were shot, my eyes a bit blurry and i could still remember it was very very decent.
We cracked a bottle, more sober, this week and i was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was.

The candidate? (Amie take note)

Little Black Dress chardonnay.
Tasting notes

A Californian offering that was simple, subtle, certainly not overdone and relatively cheap. About $2 a bottle more than the Bin65 but well worth the extra price.

It was quite nice with our smoked dill salmon in bearnaise sauce and very refreshing after the Hickory bbq pork ribs and Peter Lehmann's Clancy the following night.
I was impressed twice in two days and rather astonished the bottle lasted after day one.
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I'm just a wee bit skeptical.