If your house is anything like ours you tend to find random bottles of wine squirrelled away all over the place. This one I found looking all forlorn next to our tumble-drier rubbing shoulders with some Schweppes mixers and the growing odd sock collection. With further investigation the current Mrs T 'fessed up that this was a random Christmas gift but, given her current delicate condition, she couldn't face looking at it on the kitchen counter so it had eventually found its way to its current resting place. Well I couldn't just let it go to waste when I have a wine blog which needs constant feeding - lets get stuck in!GALLO FAMILY SYCAMORE CANYON CHARDONNAY 2007
Providence unknown but I would suspect any good chemist (tasted 29.i-'09)
Bulk market Californian screw cap chardonnay at 13.5%. The clear and a very pale lemon yellow immediately made one expect a stone dry zingy chardonnay, but the bouquet gave far more fruit than expected with melons, bananas and a definite honey hint. An off-dry wine with a some tannins which confirmed the honey-oak. The low acidity amplified the tropical fruit and blossom flavours, giving this wine a very full body which bounced around the mouth. The length matched this fullness, which was far greater than the nose or appearance suggested.
No snobbery here so lets judge a wine on its particular merits. There is a lot going in the bottle, but one cannot describe this wine as complex. Jumbled or confused could be better descriptions. I remember buying Gallo Turning Leaf zin fifteen years ago because I "wanted something different", and this wine falls into the same category. If I was at the same stage of my wine 'career' today, I'd probably buy a bottle of this and would not be disappointed.
An essay about bulk production responding to market demand?
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