DTN Blog 2 - Lesson 6

Today I went back to Josh and Debbie's to do the Drink This Now: Lesson 6. This lesson was on the color of wine, and if you should care about the color of wine. I chose to do this lesson on different Chardonnay's because #poor. I went to the Vintage Cellar to get two Chardonnay's. Keith was SUPER helpful and told me a bunch of stories about different vineyards and the history behind some of the wine. He helped me choose a Chardonnay from Sonoma County, a 2015 Kunde for the heavier, barrel-aged Chardonnay. For the light easy Chardonnay, Keith picked out a 2016 Domaine Talmard Macon-Chardonnay from Burgundy. 

The winery review for the Domaine Talmard Macon-Chardonnay: The sole wine of the estate, this Macon-Chardonnay is pure and refreshing, achieved by early picking of ripe grapes while they still have good levels of acidity. The wine is fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks only. It is notable for its freshness, purity of Chardonnay fruit and consistency from vintage to vintage (EmpireWine.com)

The winery review for the 2015 Kunde Chardonnay: Chardonnay is the queen of the whites and this lady suits that description to a tee. Across the incredibly diverse Kunde Estate, combined with a collection of clonal selections, complexity and focus come together in an easy sipping white wine. For those who like their Chardonnay to be crisp, a beautiful dose of acid and the richness of barrel fermentation creates a very lightly oaked, tasty experience (Wine.com) 

The two wines that Keith picked for me 

Step 1 for this lesson was to pour a glass and set it in front of me, and describe the colors and differences in intensity or richness of the color between the wines.  

The two wines next to their respective bottles

The Macon-Chardonnay was a much lighter, paler gold/yellow than the Kunde. The Kunde was darker in comparison, with more of a brown tint and more intensity. The Kunde is oak aged wine and the Macon-Chardonnay was aged in a steel tank, so I think the oak definitely contributed to the more golden-brown color of the Kunde. 

Step 2 was to do the standard sniff and drink. The Macon-Chardonnay smelled like a light honey drizzled on a freshly picked grape. Upon smelled the Kunde, it smelled a lot drier than the Macon-Chardonnay. I was hit with a strong sense of crisp apples, some smokiness, and an acidic, possibly sulfuric smell. 

The Macon-Chardonnay tasted very fresh and was super refreshing on my palate. It transported me to a flower patch in France, and I felt like I was drinking flowers in a way, it tasted like light strawberries, honey, and spring, however the aftertaste was a bit acidic. The Kunde was much drier and tasted very heavily of pears. I am not a fan of pears in the slightest, and did not really like this wine by itself. 

Our wine set up 

The parmesan cheese

Step 3 was to describe how the wine feels in the mouth. The Macon-Chardonnay felt MUCH lighter and thinner than the Kunde. With the Kunde, I felt like my mouth was puckering much more and felt like I had a layer of wine and dryness on my tongue.


Step 4 was to try the wine with a variety of different foods. I went to Kroger before going to Josh and Debbie's and picked up some Stella Parmesan Half Moon Wheel cheese. By itself, the cheese was phenomenal. 10/10, would recommend. We tried the cheese with both the lighter Chardonnay and the darker Chardonnay. With the Kunde, the cheese was incredible. The saltiness of the cheese really worked with the dryness of the Chardonnay. The cracker on the other-hand (Club crackers), made the Kunde taste bitter. We also tried it with peanut butter Girl Scout cookies, and the Kunde tasted a lot drier with the cookies. With the Macon-Chardonnay, the peanut butter cookies made it taste so much sweeter and more floral-like, like fresh picked roses and honey. The cheese made it taste awful and I couldn't place the taste, but the Macon-Chardonnay was better with sweet foods and the Kunde was better with salty foods. 

Overall, this lesson taught me that the color of wine truly does not matter when it comes to quality. Both wines were good, yet each were very different in color and in taste. The only thing the color indicated for me was the body of the wine, with the darker color, the Kunde Chardonnay from Sonoma California, having a thicker body than the Macon-Chardonnay from Burgundy.