Chardonnay (of the non sparkling kind) on back to back evenings is kind of unusual for us, our white wine rotation is more typically Muscadet, Chenin, and more and more Riesling, but these were both very nice in their own way.
2014 Jean Manciat Macon-Charnay Franclieu we drank with a salad with arugula, steamed lima beans fresh from the garden (amazing how one row of shell beans that grow 8 feet tall only produces enough beans for two meals) and some goat cheese. Pale yellow color, initial nose is honeyed, sweet smelling, but the wine is quite dry. Medium bodied, no oak at all on this one. With air, pear fruit and bruised apple. Great length and the acidity was just right. This is a tremendous bargain for $17 full retail. 2014 seems like a good to great vintage here for whites. Not too ripe, nothing tropical, but nice balance.
The 2002 Chablis was Dauvissat -Camus 1er Vaillons. We said a prayer to the premox gods, and it worked, this was a sound bottle in a pretty good spot, not fully mature but evolved past primary.
Light gold color that seemed appropriate for its age. Nose is lemon rind and a little brine initially. It certainly evolved with air, going through a honeyed apple phase, to an herbal spicey note something like spearmint. We drank this with shigoku oysters (first of the season, delicious!) and some steamed shrimp. The wine was really solid, fairly complex, and it had matured but not quite to that funky chicken broth stage that sometime I get from older Chablis. I think it represented its terroir well.
2014 Jean Manciat Macon-Charnay Franclieu we drank with a salad with arugula, steamed lima beans fresh from the garden (amazing how one row of shell beans that grow 8 feet tall only produces enough beans for two meals) and some goat cheese. Pale yellow color, initial nose is honeyed, sweet smelling, but the wine is quite dry. Medium bodied, no oak at all on this one. With air, pear fruit and bruised apple. Great length and the acidity was just right. This is a tremendous bargain for $17 full retail. 2014 seems like a good to great vintage here for whites. Not too ripe, nothing tropical, but nice balance.
The 2002 Chablis was Dauvissat -Camus 1er Vaillons. We said a prayer to the premox gods, and it worked, this was a sound bottle in a pretty good spot, not fully mature but evolved past primary.
Light gold color that seemed appropriate for its age. Nose is lemon rind and a little brine initially. It certainly evolved with air, going through a honeyed apple phase, to an herbal spicey note something like spearmint. We drank this with shigoku oysters (first of the season, delicious!) and some steamed shrimp. The wine was really solid, fairly complex, and it had matured but not quite to that funky chicken broth stage that sometime I get from older Chablis. I think it represented its terroir well.