A Remarkable Food and Wine Pairing Tonight With Wood Family Chardonnay
Literally at the last minute pulled a bottle of Wood Family Vineyards 2018 Chardonnay to have with some chicken dish for dinner. No idea my wife was about to cook one of the best meals of the year! It is called “Asian Chicken Wraps (better than P.F. Changs!)—that is the name of the recipe from https://joyfoodsunshine.com , with a few modifications.
The Wood Family 2018 Chardonnay is a regular stable with many meals so grabbed this out of the cellar to have with our Chicken Wrap. We typically don’t use Bibb lettuce leaves and prefer to use cut Romaine lettuce as the bed. The meal included ground chicken, ground sausage, peanut oil, diced water chestnuts, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, peanut butter, honey, sweet chili sauce and minced garlic. Crushed peanuts and sliced green onions served as toppings.
Turns out the Wood Family Chardonnay was perfect with the meal. Wood Family Vineyards 2018 Para Mas Amigas Chardonnay was a Double Gold Medal Winner from SF Chronicle Wine Competition in 2019. Not too “oaky”, this wine burst with lemon and pear, followed by butterscotch and as Rhonda Wood states “crackerjack flavors”. Not an over the top buttery Chardonnay like Rombauer, but just enough to provide a light buttery caramel and texture in the mouth. First on the eyes, a golden hue and medium viscosity is obvious. On the nose and palate, the wine has lingering tropical fruits, peach and pear in the palate. A portion under goes 100% secondary malolactic fermentation, but allows a final mix, to allow old world and new world Chardonnay to coexist in harmony. In a recent conversation, Rhonda stated she blended her Chardonnay from both “tightly grained barrels and loosely grained barrels” into the final production wine. This why her Chardonnay makes my Best Wines of the Year three years in a row! The current vintage, 2019 sells for $30/bottle.
The wine with the food took on a unique quality of both fruit characteristics and lush mouth filling Chardonnay. Together it created perhaps the most radical and delightful taste transformations I have experienced in a positive way!
The wine has always been a versatile wine, but this was extraordinary experience.
Sláinte,
Michael
California Wines & Wineries 