Wine Review - 2010 Baron Philippe De Rothschild Chardonnay

As promised we tasted this French Chardonnay this evening. To our surprise this had a lot more New World styling than we expected. There was a good amount of oak in the nose which indicated to me that this had gone through the Aussie treatment but this is not a buttery wine but more crisp and with tropical notes that you might find in a Sauvignon Blanc. There is almost effervescence to the wine which gives it a small amount of tingle on the very tip of your tongue, quite nice.

They also note on the back label hints of hazelnut and toast which we do get on the palate but not with as much force as the winemakers may have indicated. Overall this is a very drinkable Chardonnay and not necessarily just for the warmer weather days. This has the body to be a Winter white wine.

That said, we are attempting to come up with an abbreviated version of our normal tasting notes (which if you have ever seen them require some reading time). So, we are going to debut a quick version that will hopefully get the overall sense of the wine across without being a dissertation. So here it goes:

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Pale Yellow with a Greenish tinge	4.0
Smell (0-5)	Definite Oak Undertones with Peach and Pear	3.75
Taste (0-10)	Slight Sparkle with Tropical Fruit and Crisp Acidity	7.75
	Total:	15.5 / 20  (77.5%)

Bottom line: this is a great little wine and at the price point ($12.99) it is even better.  If you are throwing a party and want a white wine that can hold up to scrutiny while not breaking the budget, this would be it.

So, how does this look?  We are looking for feedback.  Is this review too short, too long, do you even care about our wine reviews?  We may do this regularly, we may not but your input will push us in a direction for sure.

We have seen other Blogs that rely heavily on wine reviews and while we like them, they are just one person's opinion.  We have become more and more critical of wines overall in the last year (mainly as an exercise in reviewing wine) but as you can see we have given this wine a 77.5% which on our scale is pretty great.  Based upon a 20 point rating, you will rarely see wines in the 90% from us.  That level is reserved for only the most special of wines. 

So, we recommend trying this wine, especially while it is on sale.  If you try it let us know your thoughts on it.

Keep on drinking!

Cheers,

Chris & Shannon