October 17, 2008

Golden Mile Cellars Chardonnay 2006

Golden Mile Cellars is one of the first places we visited years ago, and we happened to show up in the first week the winery was open. The building looks like a medieval castle for some reason. It's been sold since then. The new owners must be a little embarrased about the castle thing, since there isn't a single photo of the building out of a couple dozen on the website. I dunno, I think it's kind of cool.

This winery is now called Road 13. There's a good radio show with Terry David Mulligan called The Tasting Room which just happens to air on the local sports talk station for some reason. Anyway, the former mountie and Good Rockin' Tonite host did a full hour from the rebranding party from the winery a few months ago. Long story short, "golden mile" is the name of the geographic region roughly between Oliver and Osoyoos, but the local winemakers weren't able to market the region a la Naramata Bench since there was some confusion between the area and the winery. So the winery, Golden Mile Cellars, gave up the name. I expect we'll see some Golden Mile Region tourism pamphlets next time we visit.

This wine won a couple of medals in Okanagan festivals. I definitely get a buttery but fairly crisp dry (grapefruit?) flavour. The wine is high in alcohol. Drinkable on its own, it will be great with any seafood and has enough backbone to stand up to a strong curry. All in all, pretty much what you want in a good chardonnay.

87 points. Under $20 from the winery.

October 15, 2008

Red Rooster Chardonnay 2006

OK, very briefly: what sticks with me is the pear flavours and the balanced acidity. This one has no oak (not that I mind some oak) nor does it have that buttery character - it's more like a sauvignon blanc than a chardonnay. It would go well with brie cheese or maybe even sushi, but would be just fine with any typical white-wine food I would guess. Just finished the last glass (well, ONE of us did), wish I had more.

88 points. Bought at the winery for about $18 if I remember.