WTN: Too darn hot - I can buy myself...

[Jenise]

2023 Flowers Chardonnay Sonoma Coast
Medium yellow color. Lemon, apple, creamed yellow corn, meringue and vanilla. Very good acidity with the corners smoothed over by a bit too much malo for my tastes, but nonetheless of the whites brought to an event last night it stood out for class and style.

[David M. Bueker]

Gosh I can’t recall the last time I bought Flowers. They were all the rage in the late 1990s.

[Jenise]

I was an early fan of their pinots (Vander Kamp especially, and I still own some Camp Meeting Ridge). Probably would have been a fan of the chardonnays too, but I didn't buy them. Someone else brought this one.

[David M. Bueker]

Camp Meeting Ridge Pinot is what I bought way back.

Camp Meeting Ridge Pinot is what I bought way back.

Some very good friends of ours in the Bay Area have been on a host of mailing lists for ages (Williams-Selyem way back when, etc). Whenever we visit, they love to open some of their collection, so we've had a number of Flowers Pinots over the past 1-2 decades. While I recognize that they are very well-made wines, they are made in an idiom that doesn't match our tastes over much. They have come across as too big and heavy, but maybe we haven't had the right bottles yet.

[Jenise]

The VDK's we used to love were guilty of that, almost cabernet-like, but I bought them/saved them exclusively for serving with roast duck with a brown sauce into which I'd throw a handful of blueberries just before serving. That was one of Bob's favorite dinners in the world, and they were a perfect match for it. The CMRs I currently own are much, much lighter.

The VDK's we used to love were guilty of that, almost cabernet-like, but I bought them/saved them exclusively for serving with roast duck with a brown sauce into which I'd throw a handful of blueberries just before serving. That was one of Bob's favorite dinners in the world, and they were a perfect match for it. The CMRs I currently own are much, much lighter.

Thanks, Jenise. Speaking of blueberries: we just returned from 8 days in Alaska, during which time we took a hike in Denali (Savage River Alpine trail, 4 mi, 1500 ft elevation change) in which we encountered several hillsides with wild blueberries growing on them. Devoted foragers that we are, Jean and I ate a few, always mindful that the local grizzlies like berries, too (our 20-year old son refused to eat one, still wary of his parents' judgement). 20 min later, we encountered a woman hiking the other direction with a baggie filled with them. She insisted, however, that they were huckleberries and nothing we could say would dissuade her of that view. Three days later, on a different hike, we encountered bona fide huckleberries -- different leaves, different insides -- providing us with much-needed vindication.

[Jenise]

How fun! But yes re the bears--Alaskans know to talk loud while berry picking to discourage wildlife involvement. And huckleberries, how divine. Didn't we have a discussion here about how that flavor pops up in wine (for me, cab franc especially) but few call it out because so few have had the pleasure?