If I can't have the time machine (why haven't the egg-heads got that down yet?) then at the very least another trip to the liqour store to buy a second bottle of Domaine Chevallier Chablis 2007.
I was passing through the "city" today, and a stop to the LCBO was required. While my husband marvelled at the different varieties of cider (his drink of choice), I floated over to the Vintages room. Ahhh...the romantic lighting, the glimmer of glass and foil, the promise of another delicious yet undiscovered wine. I am so hooked.
As I perused the Italian wines, an LCBO employee was guiding around a customer who was looking for a red and a white. With a red already in his clutch, she guided him over to the shelves of German wines. I couldn't hear what they were murmuring, but the staff member pulled out the very same bottle of Riesling I had last week, and the retailer in me took over. I totally butted in. I surprised them both by reaching in between the two of them with my pointed finger and moaned "OOooooh...get that one. That is a goooood wine." They looked over at me in astonishment; I guess it was kind of a bold move and made me seem like a wierdo eavesdropper. "You tried this wine?" asked the man. "Oh yes," I replied, "it was woonnnderfuulll. I had it last week." "What did you eat it with?" he asked. I told him about the ginger and apple chicken stir fry. He seemed a bit confused by my choice and asked how it was. "It was great," I told him, "it'd be a really nice wine with a light meal, seafood, shrimp would be awesome, anything with a cream sauce. It's really light and sweet and wonderful." "Oh," replied the customer, who then turned to the LCBO employee and said accusingly "well I guess it's her word against yours."
It was then that I notice the LCBO lady glaring directly at me. I shrunk away, embarrassed. Ooops. I guess she told him something different. I didn't mean to trump her expertise. After all, I'm a know-nothing, remember?
The man walked away with Riesling in hand and the LCBO lady walked up to me grumpily. Uh oh. "DO YOU neeeeeeeeed any help?" she sneered, when what I think she wanted to say was "You couldn't possibly want any of my expertise, could you, Miss smarty pants thinks she knows it all about wine?" I gave her my apologetic no and scurried over to the France section.
In the end, I'm so glad this little interaction took place, because if it hadn't I might not have gone to cower in amongst the French wines, and if I hadn't cowered there, I might not have found this super-delicious Chablis. I've never tried wine from Chablis, and never really knew what made a Chablis a Chablis. Now I know it's the name of a region in Northern Burgundy, France, famous for it's Chardonnay grapes. So technically this Chablis is a Chardonnay, but not all Chardonnay is Chablis. See, I'm learning! You can read more about the region and it's grapes by clicking on the link at the end of the post.
Anyhoo, I ended up picking this wine because of the year on the bottle--2007. I remembered reading that regions that have good grape growing weather in a particular year result in all wines from that area being better than usual. This is true for high end wines and low end wines. In good years, the good stuff gets great and the okay stuff gets good. I peered over to the shelf and saw that a 2007 wine from the same region that had been given a score of 90 from Robert Parker was completely sold out. Sooo, I glanced over the entire section and found another 2007 from the same general area that wasn't sold out. Mine! Into the brown bag and home it came.
Tonight we enjoyed a dinner of fresh linguine with a cream sauce, made with tons of butter, two kinds of mushroom, a hint of garlic and a splash of wine from the mason jar, topped with crumbled goat cheese and fresh, chopped sage. We paired it with Trevor's famous homemade cesaer salad and baguette slices. People, I am here to tell you that I could have this meal every single week, forever. I won't, because I wish for my pants to fit me, but good galloping grapes this was a well matched meal! The mushrooms and the slight fishiness of the salad were perfect with this wine. In fact, I can't imagine there's much that won't go with this wine. I think a wine like this one would make a good house white--versatile, goes with lots of foods, refreshing taste. It's lovely and light without being super-fruity. It's got no oakeyness at all, which was unexpected for me because I've never had a Chardonnay that wasn't at least a little bit oakey. For me, it was kind of the lemon Perrier of wine; it had a bit of a lemony taste, along with a mineral flavour that was oddly refreshing. The kind of refreshing you get when you stand next to the ocean. I would love to have this wine with mussels! Num!
When you're done reading about Chablis here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chablis_wine go trot on down to the LCBO and buy a bottle. But don't tell grumpy lady I sent you!
Until next time,
Barb
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