2006 Hall cabernet Napa Valley

Back in 2010 I picked up three bottles of the highly-rated 2006 Hall Cabernet Napa Valley (WS 94 points). At the time I was not familiar with Hall, nor had I tried this wine, but I had read about in Wine Spectator and my friendly neighborhood wine merchant was very high on this wine. So I bowed to the sales pressure, paying $35/btl at the time. Last week I finally pulled a bottle from the cellar to have with our grilled steak dinner. Wow! What a terrific wine. It has prominent cocoa/mocha aromas and just smells absolutely succulent. It has layers of flavors with dried cherry and dusty earth most prominent, giving way to a lingering licorice essence at the end. One of the best cabs I’ve had in a long time. Though not quite as good as Plumpjack (my personal favorite cabernet), this is nonetheless a pretty darn good cab. And, considering I only paid $35, it is all the more enjoyable. Unfortunately, I now have only two bottles of this left in the cellar. I will try to save them but it will be difficult to restrain myself now that I know how good this wine is.

2012 North by Northwest chardonnay H3

Though I don’t generally drink a lot of chardonnay, here is another surprisingly good one that I tried recently. I say “surprisingly” good only because, for the price, I did not expect too much from this wine. On the other hand, I must say that I have had consistently good luck with chardonnays (and most white wines in general) I’ve tried in recent months from the Pacific northwest. This particular wine was an impulse buy on a recent trip to one of my favorite local wine shops, Chris Hinton’s The Wine Store (http://www.thewinestoreinc.com/new_site/). This chardonnay, from Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills AVA, runs about $13/bottle and is a delightfully fresh young white with good overall balance and a nice, crisp acidity to counter the prominent chardonnay character. Aromas of lemon curd and vanilla wafers waft from the glass, with the vanilla staying nicely prominent throughout. I’d be pleased to serve this wine to any of my chard-loving friends. Definitely worth the modest price.

2012 Trader Joe's Yountville chardonnay

On a whim last week I picked up a few bargain-priced wines at my local Trader Joes. Mostly these turn out to be worth about what they are priced at, nothing more. But occasionally there is that diamond in the rough that delivers quality well above the price point, and one such wine emerged from this most recent TJ’s venture. It is the 2012 Trader Joes Yountville chardonnay (Lot 82), priced at $9.99. I opened this bottle last night to “test drive” with a dinner of roast chicken and was very pleasantly surprised with the overall quality at this price point. Fresh apple and floral aromas are prominent on first sniff, with pear and vanilla coming through on the palate. It has a crisp, light body and pale yellow color; a definite CA chard, but restrained with good acidic balance. It's not the typical big “butter bomb” that you often get with lower-end CA chardonnays that are heavy with artificial personality. This chardonnay is entirely pleasant, well balanced and deliciously restrained in its flavors. This wine is a real bargain at this price. I shall head back to TJ’s for a few more bottles of this one while the supplies last!