Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mayo Estate Laurel Hill Chardonnay

Mayo Family Winery
Chardonnay
Laurel Hill Vineyard
Sonoma ValleyGlen Ellen, California, USA2006
14.2%
$17.99 -- Spec's Liquors, Austin, Texas

Color: Very pale gold
Nose: Bread, key lime pie
Body: Medium to full
Front: Lime water, rosemary
Middle: Spicy apricot
Back: Balsa, cinnamon
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

This wine develops fascinatingly as you drink it. It's got distinctive layers, with a thin but tasty opening leading to a spicy and then beefy middle, with acidic fruits and sweeter spices and woodiness on the way out. No new oak is used to make this wine, the label claims. The label contains a grammatical error, though, so I'm not sure how much to trust it. But for the price this is a good, interesting Chardonnay.

I'm just snacking with it today, on a hot Texas Sunday afternoon--some spicy salami and almonds. Hankering for a Dark and Stormy, I made my way to the liquor store that packs my favorite ginger beer and discovered, not at all to my surprise, that the liquor stores in Texas are closed on Sunday. Doubtless this is because hard liquor can't be sold on Sunday. My disappointment lasted 3/4 of a second, when I realized I had, with Promethean foresight, laid this bottle in the fridge last night. I like to think this is precisely what the legislature was trying to encourage with this excellent law.

I'm tired of music altogether, so I have no aural accompaniment to this other than the hum of the refrigerator and the roar of my collateral thoughts.