2022 Wood Family Vineyards Chardonnay for National Chardonnay Day!
The Winery
Pictures from Wood Family Vineyards
Wood Family Vineyards, located in eastern Livermore Valley with Rhonda Wood owner & winemaker, has been producing award winning wines for over two decades. You can read more on her background from airline pilot to award winning winemaker at:
https://californiawinesandwineries.com/2016/02/10/wood-family-vineyards-2
Recently at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition (largest in North America), Wood Family Vineyards won the following awards and not all are listed:
2019 Cabernet Franc – Double Gold
2021 Malbec – Double Gold
2019 Cabernet Sauvignon “Clone 30” – Double Gold
2021 El Loco Rojo Red Blend – Double Gold
2021 The Captain Red Blend – Double Gold
2022 Chardonnay – Gold
The Wine – “Wine is bottled poetry” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Photo ©Michael Kelly
First off, my apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson:
“In the glass, the juice glistens of golden perfection,
A sculptured artwork displaying the winemakers’ vineyard reflection
Of quality, detailed preciseness and caressing hands.
Aromas abound from the origins of the vineyard of dreams
Conjoined with the bountiful fruits of the vine, apple & pear flavors
With an undercurrent of almonds, light citrus and encased in a brioche wafer.
The finish of exquisiteness frames the sip and beckons again to the taster.
But enough, as it is time to partake and enjoy this invigorating elixir”.
-ode to Rhonda Wood’s Chardonnay by Michael Kelly
It is a great wine with fruit flavors and with a medium heavy viscosity. Coming in at 14.1% alcohol and is priced at $34/bottle on their website. This wine has made by annual Best Wines Tasted in a given year for the last five years!
The Food and Wine Pairing – “Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost. United and well matched, they are as body and soul: living partners” – Andre Simon
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Tonight’s dinner was a marinated and seared Swordfish. It was marinated in a wasabi and ginger sauce consisting of fresh ginger, shallot, garlic clove, mirin, low sodium soy sauce, wine vinegar, honey, fresh wasabi and paste with fresh ground black pepper. Marinated for 7 hours and then seared a few minutes on each side. Topped with a salsa of fresh chopped Mango and Mandarin oranges. The salsa and fish were excellent with the Wood Family Vineyards Chardonnay. The combination of the tangy marinade and sweet fruit was a beautiful contrast. I would next time “cut down” the soy sauce, mirin and wine vinegar to make the marinade a bit thicker and increase the measurements of ginger and wasabi to spice it up a bit. Still a great food and wine pairing!
Sláinte,
Michael