VILLAGE IDIOT

I've wittered on in the past about the benefits of blending wines especially if one of them is a bit below par.

Last night when I collected Her Indoors (H.I.) from the bus station we went to a local wine bar/restaurant before heading home.
I had the ever reliable Trinity Hill Chardonnay (one of the basic ones but still damned good for the price) and H.I. had a Central Otago Pinot Gris. I won't name the brand but it was bloody awful which made its price:quality = value equation way below par. This wine was made from unripe fruit a fact which the winemaker was evidently aware as he/she poured in bags of Chelsea's finest during processing. See here:  

       CHELSEA MORNING   

 The result was a sharp and thin wine with an unpleasant sweet finish. Frankly I thought that we had got over this sort of winemaking but there you go. If it had been a bag-in-the-box wine or one of those that Robert from Moera buys for $6.99 at his local supermarket I would kind of accept it, but this was priced like all the other Central Otago wines. Expensive and overpriced.

Anyway, H.I. is pretty good at tasting wines and she said "taste this" as she passed her glass over to me. This of course immediately made me suspicious as if she had a glass of Taittinger Compte, Roederer Crystal or a Montrachet of any vintage there'd be no way in hell that I'd be able to get a sip of it so I cautiously accepted the glass and came to the conclusion of which I've already bored informed you.

She then hailed the wine waiter-type guy and, from the list, ordered a decent Marlborough Riesling (Te Whare Ra I think) and proceeded to blend the two together. The result although not being brilliant certainly made the C.O. wine drinkable.

Tonight I'm enjoying a glass or two of chardonnay.
This is good for a few reasons: firstly because as I've been ill since before Christmas I haven't been drinking any alcohol; secondly as I did some good work today I feel that I've earned it: and, thirdly I've made a blending discovery.

We had family staying with us during Christmas and New year. They like good wines and brought a few treats up with them. As I wasn't drinking I didn't really take too much notice of the wines that were opened and consumed.
Today H.I. pulled out a bottle from the wine fridge. It was a Kumeu River Village chardonnay 2015.

It seemed full when lying down in the stack but had been opened and only one glass used from it.
We deduced that Chris, one of the guests had opened it, consumed a glass of it and then forgot about it. We tried it and the fruit quality is certainly there but it was a bit sharp with a poor finish. This wine has been open for more than 3 weeks. There weren't any overt oxidative characters but it was a little but 'flat'.

Recently I bought a case of Smoking Loon 2014 chardonnay on the web. It was promoted as a '98 point winning wine' which means that it should be almost perfect. The 98 points were awarded by a Californian wine competition so I guess has to be looked at sceptically. See here:



WHAT'S THE POINT?




But the wine is good. It is rich and buttery and almost 'thick' compared to the usual Hawkes Bay chardonnays I drink.
On tasting the Kumeu River wine I didn't want to chuck it just because it had been open (albeit refrigerated) for such a long time, so blended it with a bottle of the Smoking Loon that was in the fridge.
The result is stunning. It is easily the best chardonnay (blend) that I've drunk for quite some time.
I'm now thinking about buying some bottles of Kumeu River Village chardonnay 2015 to open simultaneously with every bottle of Smoking Loon I open.